Hostile 3: Just Leave Me Alone
by Mallaithe
Summary: *ABANDONED* Max and SG1 head out on a routine mission only nothing goes as planned. A more traditional sequel than Enter the Nephilim, please review! M for language, Max is not after all a lady. *ABANDONED*
1. No Means No

"Sam I get it, okay I understand what you're saying, but no is no okay?" Max grunted over her tray of chow hall goodies. She sighed at Carter's wounded expression.

The athletic blond was dressed in the standard SGC utility uniform. Her short hair had been brushed away from her face but was a little overgrown and threatening to run riot. Her face was screwed up in an expression of annoyed determination. She was standing facing Max, her own tray of chow settled before her on the small table.

"Max its unconscionable-"

"No Sam it's not going to happen, neither you nor anyone else is getting near me with a scalpel, I've spent more than my fair share in the infirmary as it is." Max growled her patience wearing thin she sighed and scrubbed her face. Max had hair slightly short than Sam's it was a little too short to complement her high cheekbones, the thick brown mass ended just short of her earlobes. Her jade green eyes were rimmed in exhausted shadows. She was shorter than Sam and had darker coloring, her skin tone was dark enough to look tanned year round. Her natural build was willowy but her constant regimen of athletic combat and cardiovascular improvement had rendered her strong as an ox and built like an athletic adolescent boy. She picked up a fork and started to eat her meal.

Daniel arrived with his own tray and sat down next to Max. He took in the two women's stony expressions and wordlessly picked up his tray to leave.

"Daniel tell her." Sam demanded.

Daniel was a cross between the women, with Sam's height and build and Max's coloring, his eyes rolled to the ceiling as he sighed and prepared to enter the fray.

"Too late." Daniel muttered and sat down again.

"Tell her what?" Daniel asked salting his tasteless chicken and girding himself for a verbal bashing from either side.

"Tell her that we could learn incredible things, like... like the cure for cancer maybe-"

"No Sam." Daniel said putting down the salt and reaching for the Worcestershire. Daniel was a peaceful man but like all peaceful men he knew when to pick up a weapon and fight. Something that had led to his presence on SG-1, this however was not a battle worth picking a weapon for, no matter who he sided with he would be battered.

"But -"

"Sam she said no, Adam said no before he took off and since there aren't any more immortals on base -that we know about- give it up. Besides you have all those scans and tests Frasier did on both of them last year use those." Daniel said attempting to end the conversation and extend an olive branch at the same time.

"There isn't enough data in those tests." Sam groused and gave Daniel a dirty look.

"Sam I love you really, you're great, but knock it off, okay?" Max pleaded she hated upsetting Sam, the scientist cum warrior was the closest thing Max had to a sister but she was not going to allow anyone to lock her up and test her like a lab rat, no matter how well intentioned or honorable the person. Sam frowned and left her meal uneaten and abandoned under the flickering fluorescent lights.

The other two watched her leave wordlessly.

"Thanks Daniel." Max sighed and continued eating.

"For what?" Daniel asked warily.

"Backing me up." Max said around a mouthful.

"Yeah well we'll both be paying for it." Daniel said with a small pained smile.

"Y'think?" Max asked spooning up some green beans. Daniel nodded morosely with a mouthful of pseudo potatoes.

A day later . . . .

"Well it's not like she'll learn anything." Max groused. She and Daniel were heading to the gym, she to practice and he to work out. She banged her practice sword rhythmically against her leg as they walked. The heavy blade was made of wood but the length and grip of it were identical to her usual sword, the one she wore on missions and for the increasingly rare challenge, it was heavier and less accurate which forced her to increase her stamina and aim.

"Why not?" Daniel asked.

"Come on Danny we've been around for like ever you really think none of us have ever done the doctor Jekyll mister Hyde thing?"

"Self experimentation?"

"Yeah plus there was this crazy guy in Seacouver who got his mitts on Mac like fifteen years ago, bad scene. The point is all that shows up in tests are hyperactive cells and regeneration, no cause, no reasoning."

"Well I doubt your crazy guy had access to the equipment and funds we do. Besides that was fifteen years ago and Sam is a genius."

"Yeah- still not gonna happen. Look if I get wounded and bleed and Sam happens to collect some blood she's welcome to it but keep the test tubes and needles away thanks." Max said wryly as they entered the gym.

The gym was the smallest in the mountain. Due to the number of personnel utilizing Cheyenne mountain four gyms had been built. OF them this was the smallest, more geared toward combat practice and weights than anything else. Max moved to the open mats to run through her warm ups and Kata before practicing in earnest. Daniel headed for the free weights and cross training machine, an idea brewing.

As Max wound down her session with some sparring with Teal'c Daniel waited patiently off to the side. Finally his two sweat drenched compatriots called a draw and headed for the benches.

"I have an idea that might make Sam _and_ you happy." Daniel said. Max stared at him warily. Daniel was unarguably a genius and had more than a little talent at diplomacy still she was cautious.

"Hey is it cold suddenly?" Max asked smirking through her caution.

"The nether-world's temperature has not in fact dropped." Teal'c supplied. Max laughed and slugged Teal'c in the shoulder. He inclined his head and slugged her back. She fell off the bench still laughing. Daniel bore it patiently.

"Okay let's hear it Daniel." Max said lying on her back with her legs slung over the seat, she took the opportunity to stretch her lower back.

"Its simple whenever you have a natural injury you let Sam do her thing, take samples, time recovery time, ask questions whatever, but nothing invasive. You don't get jabbed with needles or degraded and she gets what she wants." He said pleased with himself.

"Okay Danny I love you but did you forget about the zillions of tests you lot ran when I first showed up here all gonzo in the head? Why aren't those good enough? She and Frasier ran me through everything they could think of, I don't see why she needs more tests." Max said tiredly.

"Ah, well . . . fine, good point but could you _please_ come to some kind of compromise or détente or something?" There was genuine pleading in his voice. The tension between the two women had done nothing but grow harder and angrier. If it didn't get sorted soon it could ruin the team.

"I'll talk to her okay Danny?" Max agreed. For once she would bend first and admit she was wrong, or at least mistaken, maybe just admit she was stubborn...

She left the gym and headed for her quarters to clean up. She could have her own place off base but didn't care to. She didn't need the privacy and she didn't like the idea of being hard to get a hold of in case of an emergency, plus the entire facility being holy ground was nice.

She entered her still undecorated mini home and started the shower. The only personal touch was a rack of antique and specialized weapons on the only large area of wall space available. The rest was standard issue press board furniture and laundry exchange sheets; even the bathroom fixtures and towels were standard issue.

She finished her shower and got dressed. She still had two hours before their next mission briefing so she headed off to find Sam and try to figure out how she could restore equilibrium to the team before Jack got involved. He generally allowed the individual member's of his little kingdom to fend for themselves and figure out their own little issues but anything that took too long to mend or was a real threat to their Esprit De Corps or cohesion was soundly dealt with. Happily until now such problems had rarely effected the team. With a handful of exceptions.

Sam wasn't in her quarters so Max headed for her lab cursing herself for not heading there first.

Max knocked lightly on the open door and smiled as Sam looked up from her computer screen. Her expression was frustrated and distracted. As she took in Max standing before her, her expression softened a fraction and then darkened.

"Well that's not exactly a hostile look but I've seen friendlier looks on corpses -"

"Sorry Max you surprised me." Sam said distractedly. She didn't want to start haranguing the immortal again but the apparent selfishness of the woman astounded and enraged the scientist. Max could possibly save literally hundreds of lives, her refusal to help further that goal angered Sam.

"Okay Sam we all know I'm not one for subtlety so here's how it is. I don't want to be your guinea pig, not because of you, but because I've all ready done that once, so you tell me in detail why you need more tests from me, why you think they can help or show anything at all different, then I'll consider it." Max said and sat across from her friend.

"Max your system was under enormous stress when those tests were performed -" Sam went on for the next hour and fifteen minutes into excruciating detail. Finally Max held her hands up in a halting gesture.

"Okay, okay, chatty Cathy, I am so, so, _so_ sorry I asked. You can have your tests. Just once, one day, nothing painful, nothing that will keep me from a mission, agreed?" What Max didn't bother to demand was complete secrecy. If other immortals knew that Max was willingly assisting a human in investigating immortality her head wouldn't be worth a cent, if they knew she was willingly helping a member of the military, well there were people who would be willing to take on Cheyenne Mountain to kill her. None of this she shared.

"Max you could be the source of a cure for cancer." Sam said gleefully.

Max made a face and prayed she wasn't making a terrible mistake.

"Yeah whatever, come on I gotta change and unless you want to make it obvious you've been up all night so do you." Max teased her friend. Sam was bad at holding a grudge, particularly an unnecessary one so as far as Max could see all was forgiven.

Max left quickly, brusquely but as soon as she was out of Sam's sight she paused and sagged against the wall briefly, she let out a slow shuddering sigh. She closed her eyes and tried to will away the mental images, the perfect photo images of the infirmary, the flashbacks of pain and madness. She had spent far too much time there, caught in the possessive grip of an insane immortal, a hand maiden to a Goa'uld the bitch had taken Max's sanity. She shook her head willing the memories away, took a deep breath, and straightened up. She smoothed her clothing and started walking again. There was work to do.

Jack remained where he was half standing in the doorway of Sam's lab. He had meant to catch Sam before the briefing but had been too late; instead he had caught Max's brief moment of weakness. He frowned and checked his watch if he was fast and lucky he could catch Max before she got to her quarters. He followed after her, but was caught by Sgt. Siler a moment before reaching Max. The tech sergeant wanted to discuss some technical changes to the gate room that Jack had suggested after the last meddling alien had attempted to take over the building. Jack spoke with Siler for a moment and then headed up to the briefing room.

Daniel and Teal'c were all ready waiting. They were discussing one of Daniel's artifacts intensely. Jack made a face and sat down, he manfully managed to steer the conversation around to the Simpson's much to Daniel's amusement. Finally Sam arrived and uncharacteristically Max was nearly late. The immortal took her seat across from Jack and flashed him a rakish mischievous smile, it was a look she used as armor. Jack returned the smile with a smaller smile of his own. She seemed fine, exchanging insults and greetings with the rest of the team. Jack gave her a studious look which she brushed off. The science geek in charge of the briefing cued up his visuals and the show began.

Jack focused on the briefing it was pretty standard fare. A group of Jaffa had requested assistance in the form of advice and weapons against their local system lord. It was somewhat standard to send the infamous SG-1 complete with Teal'c out on these jaunts. It had the possibility of becoming routine and thus boring the last thing Jack wanted was a complacent team. He was beginning to loathe these missions. Still until some kind of headway was achieved or new intel. surfaced suggesting a better use of the flagship team's skills it was what they had.

After the briefing they had half an hour to gear up, discuss options, and hit the gate room. Jack grabbed Max and pulled her aside.

"Something's up with you - let me finish." He admonished as she moved to argue. His hair had grayed during his stint as commander of SG-1 but there was more iron in his tone. He was one of the few people Max knew who could cow Max into silence with a look. While the two had never physically fought I combat or on the mat during a practice session Max was certain the wiry and innovative officer could beat her to a pulp. Still her obedience had more to do with Jack's knowledge, skills, and the loyalty of his people than his skill at ass-kickery.

"This isn't the time or place but as soon as we hit dirt post mission you're going to hash it out, with me, doc Frasier, or the shrinks, I won't take you on another mission till then, clear?"

"Crystal." Max muttered sourly. He nodded and gestured toward the armory. She finished assembling her kit, taking the time to insure her usual weapon had not been handled after her last practice session, and headed for the gate room.

The trip was as fast and hectic as usual, they arrived on the planet -she couldn't recall the name or index number- and took up positions. They were meant to be met by a team from the Jaffa's settlement but the immediate vicinity was deserted. Max frowned out at the silent landscape. No birds sang, no insects were evident, there weren't even any clouds in the sky.

"Up and at 'em kids, looks like the welcoming party is late." Jack growled and adjusted the strap on his weapon. Teal'c took point, Max and Sam flanked and Jack took the rear. Jack led them away from the gate and down a well worn path, he hoped to meet their welcoming party but kept his weapon ready.

"Hey Max?" Daniel said softly.

"Yes Daniel?" Max replied snarkily.

"Remember that planet with the kids-"

"Who worshiped me when they weren't busy beating me to death?" Max asked shortly she shivered slightly.

"Yeah, sorry it's just, does this seem familiar?"

Max frowned and kept her weapon at her shoulder.

"Max?" Jack called.

"I'm fine Colonel, he's right this place is very similar Sir, perfect fields but no people, nice neat path but again no people, just basically no people. Plus the briefing said these Jaffa had a more advanced society than normal but this looks like it's barely a step above subsistence just like P- whatever were we encountered the Ferals."

"Damnit, Sam do you agree?"

"I'll check for EMF radiation sir but I think Daniel's right."

"Okay back to the gate, we'll go back home dial try to redial the address the Jaffa gave us and see what's to see." Jack said. They about faced and headed back. The gate was just out of their sight past a stretch of thick woods that while not physically blocking their path kept them from a visual.

As they neared the woods there was a soft rustle. The group closed ranks and dropped to one knee in a semi-prone shooting stance. They waited in tense silence as the noise increased, finally a group of children appeared. Feral, ragged, and armed.

"Ahhhh Fuck." Max groaned and chambered a round. The rest of the team grimly followed suit.


	2. Intergalactic Children of the Corn

**A/N: The title was inspired by the song during the credits on ****Slither****, just a little trivia. Not sure where this is going, but I'm having fun so far, please let me know if I've screwed up the time line or something doesn't make sense. A quick note as to timeline, Enter the Nephilim is set roughly ten years after Hostile, this is an immediate sequel to Hostile, sorry for being like that. I live for reviews so please share your opinions :D**

The children stared solemnly at the strangers. The team remained tense, uncertain of how to proceed, they did not want to open fire into a crowd of children, insane violent children though they were. So the first move was up to the kids.

"Daniel did you have any luck teaching that girl we took back?" Jack asked out the side of his mouth.

"Minimal, she was handed off to a behavioral specialist." Daniel replied i a whisper.

"Great so we have no new Intel?" Jack asked rhetorically.

"Yeah, Max, thoughts?" Jack asked.

"Don't look at me, I know they're good at killing, good enough to keep me down and out for a couple three weeks at least. They do communicate but the language if you can call it that was more a mimicry of local animals and gestures than anything close to English."

"Okay, here's the deal we slowly head toward the gate, if they charge aim to scare, aim to kill _only_ as an absolute last resort." Jack sighed.

"We could let them capture us." Sam said.

"Yeah last time we did that you nearly died and we lost Max for a month, no thanks." Jack growled.

"Sam they didn't know I was an immortal when they had me and they... well it was a lot of damage, I don't think they have a concept of humane treatment."

"O'Neill –"

"Yeah Teal'c I know it will mean killing kids but it's us or them." Jack said grimly, he tried not to see his son's face reflected in the eyes of the children.

They moved silently, with crippling slowness afraid of startling the children into action. Finally they emerged from the woods and spotted the stargate. It was like a beacon of hope. They shared a half second of relief but kept moving, as the gate loomed closer the urge to bolt increased. They felt a wash of nerves like race horses at the gate.

Jack steadied them with a look and continued their arduous walk. As they approached the DHD Jack nodded to Daniel. Daniel split off and dialed the address. As the first chevron powered on and engaged the children attacked they moved like a tidal wave. Engulfing the team.

The five earthlings fought heroically. Using fists, knees, elbows and rifle butts to dislodge the crazed children and break free. Sam and Teal'c broke out first, Teal'c snagged Daniel's collar and hustled Daniel and Sam through the gate before the stunned mortals could resist. He turned back to help Jack and Max. The children were bloodied but still swept up in their frenzy, at the sight of their prey escaping they became incensed.

Max let out a shriek of pain and rage and briefly appeared in the midst of the crowd. Her face was bloodied and her scalp was badly gashed. Jack appeared next to her a moment before she was pulled back into the throng. Teal'c bodily hurled himself into the fray and snatched at an arm clad in the familiar dull green of the SGC, he wrapped the limb in an iron fist and hauled. Max surfaced like a landed fish, she was blood soaked and unconscious. Teal'c threw her toward the gate more concerned with the very mortal Jack O'Neill than immortal Max.

Teal'c waded into the throng shrugging off stinging blows and lacerations. He snatched the children out of his way like a raging bear until he found Jack. He slipped an arm around the battered Colonel and sprinted for the gate the children followed but stopped short at the base of the gate, almost as though there were a wall in their way. Teal'c tucked the Colonel close and darted through the gate, at the last minute he snagged Max's collar and dragged her in as well.

The med team on the other side was all ready tending to Sam and Daniel, Max was lying on a gurney, it had taken awhile but eventually the med teams and Frasier had learned to leave Max alone. So she was given an I.V. to supplement the fluid loss from bleeding out while the team focused on patching up the mortals around her.

Teal'c dropped to his knees and allowed the team to take Colonel O'Neill. He got to his feet and waved away attention, his symbiote would take care of his injuries. He watched stonily as the med teams hustled Jack and Daniel out of the gate room. He and Sam followed. In the crush Max was left behind, alone, on her gurney, with her I.V. drip.

Max came to with a gasp and a shudder less than a minute later. Her eyes snapped open. She sat up groggily and pulled the I.V out of her arm. She ignored the trickle of blood and the spilled I.V. fluid. She got to her feet shakily and headed toward the infirmary. The floor of the gate room was spotted and splattered with blood. She ignored it and the door guards who could not help but stare at her ravaged uniform and wild eyes. She waved drunkenly at them as they moved to assist her and hurried along as her strength slowly returned. There had been too much blood on the floor, even taking in her own blood loss and Teal'c's it was too much.

She stormed into the infirmary rage in her heart and fear on her face. Sam and Daniel were patched and Daniel was in bed but both were awake and alert, their faces were fixed on the team clustered around Jack. Max followed their gazes. Jack was spread eagle, his shirt had been cut away, he had several deep stab wounds and a half dozen hand sized deep muscle bruises peppered his torso. While the team watched Frasier pulled the curtain closed around the scene cutting off the team.

Max stood frozen her heart racing. The thought of losing Jack, actually losing him unsettled her, it would be like losing Mac, or Adam, she knew in her head that the day would come when he would simply succumb to age like all mortals but in her heart he was the father and best friend she had sought in Mac and Adam even in Joe. Losing him on her watch when she was standing a few feet away and could have saved him was unacceptable. She turned slowly to Sam and Daniel and she noticed Teal'c for the first time.

Wordlessly Max sat on the edge of Daniel's bed next to Sam and took the younger woman's hand in her own. She squeezed tightly and kept her gaze on the curtain around Jack.


	3. Dress the Wounds

It took sixteen hours before Jack was declared stable but critical. The med team had patched him up rapidly but the blood loss had wreaked havoc on the Colonel's system. Max was fuming she demanded the SGC send a team back to capture the children.

"They're a god damned menace sir!" She roared. Hammond gave her a cold hostile look. She swallowed hard and sat down. She lowered her voice but didn't apologize.

"Sir we cannot keep running into them and losing people, we need to eliminate them as a threat!" She hissed. Fact was the hcilfen had only ever killed one member of the SGC and that had been Max herself, that they had not only killed her but done so repeatedly and effectively enough to keep her down and out for three or more weeks was terrifyingly impressive and Max knew she didn't need to point it out to back up her point.

"Adviser Holloway how exactly do you expect us to do that?" Hammond asked. His tone was icy, she was out of control, disrespectful, and bordering on insubordination.

"I don't know yet sir but that's why we need to go back-"

"Enough Max if you had rank I'd remove it, now listen to me, Colonel O'Neill is a strong man he _will _recover, we are all deeply concerned for his safety, demanding we embark on a Gung Ho poorly informed and possibly suicidal mission is asinine. Now I'm taking you off mission rotation until you cool down and have a chance to be cleared by psych. Now go see if there's any news about Jack. Dismissed."

Max swallowed her objections and did as she was told, for once. She knew she had stepped over a line and been unfair to the General but there it was. She had pissed him off to a point where he couldn't or wouldn't listen to her. Instead she was stuck on De Facto desk duty. Likely she would have been anyway since the team was all on convalescent leave. She snarled under her breath and glared at the General's now closed door. She stomped off toward the infirmary.

The low muffled beep of Jack's monitors greeted Max. She sighed and put a hand on Sam's shoulder. Sam looked up at Max with sleep heavy eyes. The unspoken feelings between Sam and her superior had only slowly become apparent to Max. An emotional blockhead at the best of times she had slowly realized why Sam always spoke to Jack using protocal friendly terms, never nicknames, never overly familiar. At first the immortal had assumed that Sam was a stickler for protocol a stick up the ass rule lover, she had guessed wrong.

"Take a break Sam." Max said gruffly but not unkindly. Sam left silently. Max took a seat and nursed her anger. She held it close to her like a dear friend, a shield to her darker and more murderous side. She did not trust herself, if she pushed her wrath aside she feared she would succumb to her impulses and annihilate the children who had nearly killed her friend.

She watched tensely as Jack's vital signs remained stable and strong. They had not fluctuated in days yet he did not wake. She frowned and steepled her fingers. Ten, twenty, thirty, forty-five minutes passed. She stood and paced the tiny alcove, her fingers laced tightly behind her back. As hours ticked by she alternated her stance, pace, and posture but never ceased fretting. Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c stopped in sat and watched Jack, watch Max freak out and left - all but Sam. Max glared after their retreating forms.

Jack had trusted her, had insisted she become part of his team had spent a fruitless month combing the known galaxy for her when _she_ had disappeared, how could she do any less for him? She ground her teeth in frustration and shot Frasier a leave me alone glare. The red hair knew the better part of valor and left the surly woman alone. The entire SGC had learned to walk carefully around Max when she was in a black mood. Daniel returned carrying a meal tray. Max silently accepted it and mechanically shoveled the food into her mouth. Daniel had recovered rather rapidly; he still limped and was multi-colored but healthy.

He sat next to Max regarding her quietly. Max felt uncomfortable under the quiet man's gaze. Finished she set the food aside.

"You aren't doing anyone any good Max."

"Save it Danny we all deal in our own ways, trust me, this is the best I know how and you wouldn't want to see my other methods." Max grunted. Daniel shook his head. Max was tightly wound and damaged but she was a good person underneath her doubts and self applied scary rep.

"Fine." He said and left.

This went on for days until finally Jack woke up. He bawled Max out for being a pain in the ass and then quietly, in his own way let her know he appreciated all she had done for him, and for the team. Still it was almost two months before Jack was cleared for gate travel.

"Jack come on this is ridiculous, I. Am. Fine. I've _always _been fine I don't need to see a shrink just to go through the gate." Max growled. While Jack recovered Max had myriad excuses to avoid having her clearance reviewed by psych. Jack's return to good health and the resumption of SG-1 as a cohesive unit had worked wonders on Max's interpersonal skills they were still, well raw.

"Max we love you kid you have spirit, smarts, guts, immortality but you are also a huge pain in the ass. You piss off everyone you work with at least once and not in a small way-"

"Ah come on Jack I never made you mad-"

"Breaking into the gate room? Killing Adam? Disobeying me and killing Akna? Ring a bell? The point is Max that you need to deal with your life _before _the SGC so that life _in_ the SGC doesn't wear you down. I get it when it comes to shrinks okay? You think I like them? No one likes them but they can serve a purpose."

"I get this guy to sign off on me and I'm good to go back right?"

"Yep."

"Fine give me the paperwork."

"No sleeping with him and no threatening to kill him either." Jack grunted. Max's expression remained innocent but there was a flicker in her eyes, annoyance, resignation, or acceptance of a challenge it was impossible to say.

"On one condition Sam gets copies of the notes and any tests run then." Max said and folded her arms.

"Why?"

"She wants to know what makes me tick, let her find out." There was venom in Max's voice. Sam had not attempted to start or further her inquiries into Max's immortality, as more time passed Max grew more afraid of others finding out what she had agreed to. Sam's understanding made things worse. Before starting the testing Sam wanted to know more about Max, especially how she had come to be immortal. Max was pathologically defensive of her past and her First Death in particular. Of all the team mates she spoke most simply and honestly about such things to Teal'c. Teal'c was not hampered by the western Judeo-Christian morals and culture that the rest of the team and most of her friends were, he did not judge simply absorbed, evaluated, and accepted. Max could not stand and would not accept judgment from anyone who had not suffered as she had. Thus she listened to Adam about anything and Mac about most things. Sam's demanding questions and insistence on Max opening up rankled the immortal so she would open up and insure that Sam had all the information she might need and then some.

Jack frowned. This would certainly cause friction among the team. At the same time there all ready existed a great deal of friction. Maybe Sam needed a reality check, a stern and certain reminder that Max was after all basically human and not a lab rat or super being. Also friction was not always detrimental, often it led to a tighter, closer team, just as –to borrow a metaphor from Max's world- a new scabbard could cling to a blade and hamper its movement but after time and friction wore it down it allowed completely free movement while still providing security. He decided to let it go, if all else failed and it was a disaster he could reassign Max to another team.

"Fine, deal, but do me one favor, as a personal thing, actually try to listen to this guy, the SGC only hires the best, he might actually be able to help you."

"Jack, do you honestly think there's someone in this wacked out universe that can offer impartial therapeutic advice to someone like me?"

"Hell kid, if there is the SGC will find 'im."


	4. Careful She Bites

Max sat waiting for her shrink to appear. Her thoughts drifted toward Good Will Hunting and every other miracle shrink movie she'd ever seen, every story she'd ever read, all the horror stories about psychiatric drugs, suicide, psychotic breaks and amnesia. She picked her teeth and made a paper airplane out of a perfume ad torn from a magazine. She preferred the stiffer heavier paper. She flung the airplane into the air and made dive bomber noises as it arced down toward the floor and hurled itself upward on a draft of air from the waiting room door, inches from a deadly collision with the cream carpet of the floor.

She was waiting in a small alcove. Cheyenne mountain had been designed during the cold war to house nuclear ballistic missiles. While the importance of psychiatry and stress related mental illness had been gaining prominence then it had not reached a level of importance that justified building a specific mental health wing or section. So the long suffering but ever patient SGC dedicated 'shrink' had been allotted a former weapons locker as a waiting room and an adjoining storage room as an office. A generous decorating allotment had assisted in transforming both rooms into something not altogether hideous and off putting.

Warm friendly but not garish colors, comfortable but easy to enter and exit furniture (who says special ops personnel were paranoid by nature?), tasteful art and a wide arrange of magazines and books adorned the waiting area. The office itself was simple and unpretentious but professional, very careful to walk the line between off putting false friendly best buds vibes and austere clinical coldness. It had been a difficult job.

Max picked up another magazine and began paging through searching for another ad to rip out and mutilate when her name and serial number were called. She popped out of her seat and grinned at the others still waiting. She followed the attractive but plainly dressed younger woman into the office and watched while she put a thick file on the desk dominating the rear of the office and left. Idly Max wondered if the girl's conservative dress was as required and intentional as the tasteful decor.

"Nice digs doc." Max said and dropped heavily into a seat opposite an unfamiliar man sitting at the heavy dark almost baroque in style desk. The man leaned back in his chair and picked up the file.

"That all about me?"

"Yep." He said and set it down face up, he flipped through a few pages making notes. Max watched the clock for a bit.

"Behind on your paperwork? Tell you what if it will go faster and get me out of here sooner I can dictate it to you, here I'll read it to you come on." She wheedled gesturing for the file. He smiled and set the file aside.

"I am not your psychiatrist, I'm not a psychologist either. I am a counselor, I'm paid to evaluate potential patients, to decide how intensive their procedures may need to be."

"Come near me with lobotomy in mind and I'll neuter you."

"Miss Holloway if the medical section of your file is correct I think we would find it quite difficult to lobotomize you, if that were an approved course of treatment for personnel assigned to the SGC in the first place, which, I assure you, it is not."

"Good to know, so no nurse Ratchet for me eh?" The question was rhetorical and the little man wisely did not answer it. Max crossed one leg over the other and tapped the fingers of her left hand on the knees of the dangling leg.

She sat patiently in silence as her allotted half hour evaluation time slipped away and the little man continued to scratch on his notepad and flip through her file. Finally he looked up and checked his watch. He shook his wrist and listened to it and then sighed.

"I'm afraid I lost track of time there Miss Holloway you may go."

"That's it? What kind of evaluator doesn't ask questions?"

"Don't worry Miss Holloway there will be plenty of questions tomorrow."

"I have to come back tomorrow?"

"Certainly, you are scheduled to come here daily in fact. Until you are cleared and rotated back to your team." Max ground her teeth but kept her mouth shut.

"Fine tomorrow then." She conceded tightly and left quietly. She did not say goodbye.

The next morning was rinse repeat as far as Max was concerned. She showed up the customary fifteen minutes early and waited quietly in the waiting room. She did not make a paper airplane this time content to watch the familiar and unfamiliar faces around her. Some of those she knew took pains to avoid eye contact. She took part in the tacit conspiracy these few embraced and flung about themselves and also avoided eye contact. To make eye contact would be to acknowledge the other person and then to admitting there was a reason each was sitting in that chair, and not just because they were due for their annual evaluation.

She dozed off and woke sharply when her name and number were called again. She entered the office and saw the same little man, barely five foot maybe a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet. He was standing in the corner making coffee. She frowned the coffee pot, it had not been present the day before.

"Do you like it? I got tired of having to interrupt the waiting room to get a cup of coffee, everyone always perks up when they see me like I'm going to walk out and say, okay no therapy today feel free to come back tomorrow. Rather disconcerting really. I like to think I am good at my job."

"Heh, you're not a counselor/evaluator." Max said sourly. She sat down in the comfy chair by the desk and watched as he finished measuring his grounds and turned the coffee pot on.

"No I'm not Miss Holloway."

"Why the act?"

"It is useful to weed out the charlatans, and those with extremely good defense systems. I believe that with you however it was unnecessary. You make a point of not hiding yourself. You make sure that everyone knows exactly who you are and where you stand at all times." He said as he made his way to the desk and sat down.

"Yep, anyone could tell you that." She snorted.

"Yes but having observed it for myself I have verified it without having to run such statements through the informer's own web of psychiatric motivators. Basically Miss Holloway it saves me time."

"Why don't you call me Max? You seem to know just about everything else about me."

"Ah well, that is where you are mistaken Miss Holloway. For instance I do not know why you agreed to this treatment, why you would prefer to go through this inconvenience rather than give up on your position and future here."

"I like the work."

"I'm sure you do. I am also certain that Colonel O'Neill and SG-1enjoy having you on their team. But, that does not explain why you agreed to come here."

"I made a deal with O'Neill."

"I see, may I be privy to the details?"

"Maybe. Why don't you tell me how you're going to cure me?"

"Cure you? I'm afraid you seem to be suffering from a misconception Miss Holloway. You are not in fact ill, you are suffering from no disease. You are not depressed, manic depressive, bipolar, schizophrenic or any other widely used and abused 'diagnoses'. You are simply a unique individual with an unhappy background who has become embroiled in a high risk, high stress career who may benefit from learning a few coping techniques and mechanisms."

Max frowned at the little doctor. He was making a great deal of sense. A disturbing and suspicious amount of sense.

"Okay. So what's on the menu for the day?"

"I have some reading material I'd like you to peruse as well as a few videos. If you could take them with you and review them before our next meeting tomorrow I believe it will form a nice basis upon which we can build."

"You're giving me homework?"

"In a manner of speaking." He said with a smile. Max snorted and shook her head. She accepted the manila packet from the man and stood to leave.

"You are a strange doctor, what's your name? Bones?"

"Timothy Weston."

"Right catch you later Timmy." Max grunted and left.

She watched the videos on a borrowed and very dusty VCR and fell asleep reading the pamphlets and article excerpts.


	5. Realization

The cycle of Max interrogating Dr. Weston and Weston in turn asking nothing of Max while supplying her with ample advice and demonstrations of stress coping techniques in the form of literature and tapes continued for two weeks.

Max sat with a pile of papers and books on her knees and chewed gum loudly in the waiting room. She earned a few glares but more smirks. Max was a bit of a mascot in the SGC. She was known for her antics and attitude. She blew a face sized bubble as Weston called her she stood up and popped the bubble, messily, she dropped her books and papers and cleaned them up while picking gum strands off her face. Weston waited patiently. Someone behind Max giggled. Max sneered at Weston and followed him into his office.

"Let the healing commence." She said dropping her stack of books and papers on Weston's desk and dropping into the chair.

"Why do you come here Max?"

"'Cause the Colonel told me too." She said innocently and batted her lashes for extra effect.

"Allow me to rephrase the question. Why do you think I keep scheduling sessions? Every day you come in here quietly mock me and this office, this process, then accept the information I provide and leave, only to return and repeat the process. So, why do you come here?" His tone was hard just short of hostile.

"Because until you sign a piece of paper I can't go through the gate and since the powers that be think I'm some kind of security risk I can't leave the mountain." She snarled.

"If you were allowed to leave the mountain, to return to your life in Washington would you?" He asked, his tone shading toward curiosity.

Max frowned. She had not thought about it. Her life now was the SGC, and SG-1, she loved Mac and Adam but knew they were fine without her. Would she go back? Back to what?

"I don't know." She said quietly.

"Exactly. You have devoted yourself to this cause."

"Well, yeah look you guys have maybe eighty years on earth. Eighty years to live love reproduce whatever. I have a theoretically unending amount of time okay? So yes I care if the Earth is blown up or overrun with hostile aliens. It matters." She snorted and glared at Weston.

"That is not why you devote yourself to the SGC."

"Yeah mind reader? Why then?"

"You know I've read your file. Your entire service record, security clearance – or lack thereof, and your psych evaluation."

Max scowled and stood up. She walked over to the coffee pot and poured a mug.

"Max the fact is you should never have been admitted into the Stargate program. You're evaluation well, it's not good."

"So . . . I am sick."

"Yes and no, you're not ill, you don't need medication, or surgery, or hospitalization but you need help, and we can help you."

"We? Look I have problems yes, but so would you if you had my life so fuck off with 'we' Weston." Max snarled. She set her mug down and strode for the door she reached for the knob.

"Max you're compulsive murderer." Weston said.

Max froze with her hand outstretched. Slowly she lowered it and turned a baleful glare on Weston. She watched a vein on his temple pulse rapidly, his heart was racing. She frowned at his fear and felt her old desires stir in her belly.

"If Colonel O'Neill and your own actions had not compelled the SGC to take you on you would never be here. You proved that you can be trusted that your urges do not control you, but you are a murderer Max and you take extreme pleasure in it."

"No, not pleasure, satisfaction. You've never been hunted, actively sought out by an intelligent human who wants to kill you, so yeah I get satisfaction from destroying that which would destroy me, sometimes it even makes me fell good. So?" Max asked hollowly. Her gaze had gone leaden, her hands strayed to her pockets and her shoulders hunched in, like a sulking child.

"So there's hope. You have a moral framework, you can be trusted to make the right decisions. We know this, but what you have been through in the last few months is more than enough to land any member of the SGC in here. What I am saying Max is that you're at risk. I'm trying to instill in you that you can change your odds."

"My odds? Of what? Killing someone? Let me tell you about those odds Weston. I could kill you where you stand before you could draw breath to scream. I know what I need and I know how to deal. So I'm a pain in the ass big deal. I'm the only person in this mountain who can take a full clip to the chest, get up and deck the bastard who shot me, read me doc? So back off and sign my paperwork."

"Or?" To Weston's credit his voice was steady and he had not yet reached for his panic button. Still the vein danced a samba of fear.

"Or I walk, go back to Seacouver. Adam got out of the mountain so can I."

"Max this is not black and white its not you and us, its all us. We want you here, we want you on SG-1 but until everyone involved here believes beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are not just 'able' to do your job but willing and _happy _to do your job, without nightmares, or flashbacks, without constantly doubting yourself and your moral worth we don't want you to do it."

"Who is 'we' Weston?" She demanded.

"Colonel O'Neill, General Hammond and I." Weston said gently.

"O'Neill?" Max asked softly. Weston nodded in silence. Max felt cold and soft. She had always felt like steel, hard iron and hot lead. Now she felt like a newborn, revealed and raw. She sucked in a painful breath and grabbed the doorknob. The gentle way the man had broken the news made it worse.

"Max you can't leave like this-"

"I'll see you tomorrow Weston." Max said quietly and opened the doors.

Max didn't storm in to O'Neill's office or quarters. Didn't demand to see the General and bawl him out. She went to the enlisted club and ordered a gin and tonic. She sat and stared at the fizzy tonic water burbling through the gin and around the ice cubes tickling the slice of lime hanging off the side of the glass. She sat for six hours watching her drink go flat.

The next day she sat quietly in the waiting room, hands folded in her lap. She stared with unfocused eyes at the table full of magazines.

Weston called her name and she quietly followed him. She sat obediently and waited for Weston.

"What did you do after our session?" He asked.

"I bought a drink and watched it for six hours."

"Feel better?"

"I realized something." Weston waited expectantly. Max sat for a moment.

"There's a cost for everything. In order to be immortal I _had_ to die violently. In order to become part of the SGC I _had_ to be possessed by Akna. If I want to go back through the gate then I _have_ to learn to . . ." She trailed off.

"Learn what Max?"

"To cope."

"Max you know how to cope your methods are . . inefficient. What I want to do is teach you to talk, to let out the things that are gnawing at you."

"Okay." She said hollowly.

"Max this will make you stronger."

"What do you want to know?"

"I know your biography, the parts that made it onto paper anyway. Tell me about you."

"I don't like owing anyone. It irritates me. I can't stand to be waited on at restaurants so I stay home or have people over. I don't like dogs, just don't never have. My favorite color is cerulean. I only speak one language which in my crowd makes me an ignorant savage. I like to push myself as hard as I can and then some. I like fighting I like the rush, whether it's a verbal spar, hand to hand or a well placed kill shot. I don't like anyone to threaten me, I feel a threat even implied I take them down. I am what I am and see no need to change, generally."

"Okay." Weston said and took notes.

"That's it? Just okay."

"Yep. How about your parents?"

Max fell silent and looked at her hands.

"They were not good people."

"Did they abuse you?"

"You have to be noticed to be abused."She said and laughed sourly.

Weston waited.

"They were substance abusers who sold me for crack and crappy liquor." She grunted staring at her hands.

"Sold you?"

"Literally to the old lady next door, have you ever given a strange old lady a sponge bath? Tell you what it makes giving your creepy great aunt a kiss on the cheek the easiest part of your day." she snickered.

"How old were you when you left them?"

"Thirteen. The state took me and I bolted from my foster home like I don't know a year later maybe."

"How were you killed?"

"Its in the file."

"I would like you to tell me."

She froze and remained silent for a very long time. When she finally spoke her voice was tight, her delivery emotionless.

"I was doing okay. I had a decent low paying job. Even had a version of a social life. I was walking to the bus stop to head home and I got snatched off the street. He raped me stabbed me, and strangled me."

"How did you wake up."

"Naked, in a park I went home, got fired over my answering machine and didn't leave my apartment for a week."

"When you did?"

"I picked a new name. Packed the bare essentials and left."

"Where did you go?"

"Does it matter?"

Weston waited in silence. The soft scritch of his pen on paper fell silent.

"I . . . don't remember. The next thing I knew Macleod was waking me up. I was in an alley. He took me to his loft and explained how my immortality worked."

"That's not in your file."

"I know."

"No, I mean your file says you lived and worked for a year before Macleod found you. You worked as a waitress."

"I don't remember that." Max said intrigued. She couldn't imagine having the patience to be a waitress. She wondered if perhaps Adam had had his way with the computerized files before he fled.

"After Macleod found you?"

"He taught me what he knew introduced me to Adam who did likewise. I did well, had a job as an assistant to a P.I. tried my own agency and bagged it. Then y'know ended up here in the end."

"Why didn't you stay with your job as the P.I's assistant?"

"He left town, closed shop." More notes from Weston. She debated telling the doc what had happened with Simon for a quarter of a second then smiled slightly and banished the thought.

"What does this have to do with anything?" She asked finally.

"So far as I can see every time you get close to a situation that you enjoy, a job, relationship, what have you, it gets yanked away from you."

"Yeah?'

"Yes. Its no wonder you can't trust anyone or relax ever."

"Yeah well." She said dismissively. Weston leaned back in his chair. He dug through her file and pulled out a slip of paper.

"Look Max you understand what motivates you. You understand how to cope with stress and depression, I'm returning you to active status but our sessions will continue."

"Just like that?"

"Yep. Don't screw up, I catch you hiding anything or trying to tough out something you should be discussing with me I'll bounce you back to non-active in a heartbeat."

Max smirked and took the paper from Weston. She leaned close enough to smell him and smirked.

"I knew you were a hard ass underneath all that fancy talk." She inhaled his scent and turned brusquely. Once she was gone he let out a low breath and shook his head. His hand shook slightly as he reached for his phone.


	6. Historical Accuracy

"I got my walking papers boss, when do we leave?" Max asked. She was peering at Jack from around the corner of his doorway. He grunted and waved a handful of paperwork at her.

"Later." Jack said wearily.

"You are so not reacting like I'd hoped." Max said and entered the office. She was full to the brim with excited energy.

"Sorry Max since you've been on convalescent leave the team took the opportunity to take a rest, and get caught up on training and paperwork, which left me with mission reports from a month ago to write up. Thanks by the way for that."

"What? I'm not the mission leader. Besides I don't even have rank smart ass." She sniffed and stifled a giggle.

"Yeah well you do now." Jack said and slid a certificate across his table at her.

"Wazzat?" She asked curiously picking it up.

"You've been step-promoted to staff sergeant assuming you accept the oath of enlistment."

"What? Why? It's cause I yelled at Hammond and he couldn't take my rank away isn't it?" She asked archly, she examined the certificate and chuckled.

"Came from on high Sergeant couldn't tell you otherwise." Jack said but there was a suspicious twinkle in his eyes.

"Do I have to go to ALS?"

"I doubt it."

"Cool." Max said and grinned madly. She wasn't sure what all having rank would entail.

"How much am I gonna get paid?"

"Plenty, why don't you go run by Frasier's? Or bug Carter?" Jack sighed. He took in her bouncy exuberance and scrubbed his face.

"You're cute when you're doing paperwork –sir." Max chuckled and dodged a hastily hurled notebook.

She felt good. She wasn't sure why, maybe the tale she had spun for Weston had made her feel better she wasn't sure. Max had not been found by Mac, she'd been found by Adam. She really didn't remember the year as a waitress though, that was weird. She swung by her quarters and checked her email. There was one email from an unknown address but the subject didn't sound like spam. She opened it.

_Hey kid I'm fine, still sight seeing? – M_

Max grinned widely. It was a message from Adam. He was okay. She felt another unconscious weight lift and fade away. She leaned forward and typed a reply.

_Of course who else would have me? Keep your wits about you and come see me sometime! Just y'know don't get cuffed, be well old friend_.

She hit send with a smirk. Old was putting it lightly. At somewhere _over_ five thousand years old Adam was more than merely old. She stood up and retrieved her practice sword from its storage case.

Their mission calendar and day to day had been so hectic that she had not had time to practice, no she corrected herself, she had not made time to practice. Fact was she had allowed the job, the title to consume her. Perceived and actual concerns had eaten away her personal time and freedom she had become obsessed and not in a good way. still with the team on De Facto hiatus and she busily dodging therapy sessions she had had plenty of time but had sunk into a high strung funk and allowed her skills to stagnate not at all acceptable.

She swung the heavy wooden blade experimentally through the air. With a grin she reached for her gym clothes.

She was alone in the gym, oddly she had chosen one of the more isolated gyms but was still surprised to find herself alone. She warmed up quickly and then launched into a series of connected Katas Adam had taught her. They emphasized speed, precision, and ruthless efficiency. As she moved she ham stringed invisible opponents, split skulls and slit throats. Some Katas focused on self discipline and defense. Max learned those but like all good warriors she knew the best defense was often an excellent offense.

She fought the air for an hour and a half before another person appeared. It was a younger man unfamiliar to her –hardly a surprise- the base had several thousand individuals assigned to it. Some of whom were actually engaged in deep space radar telemetry. She nodded amicably to the newcomer and kept working. He moved to a weight rack and began his own workout. She tuned him out and kept her focus on her own routine.

Finally satisfied that she had not completely lost her edge, merely dulled it to the point of near uselessness she ceased her movements and toweled down. The man was watching her as she cooled down, wiped down, and then lovingly stowed her practice blade.

The blade was intentionally weighted; it allowed her to increase her strength and added more power to her blows when she used her actual combat blade. The man remained silent as she left.

She met Carter in the hallway on her way to her quarters.

"Max? You look great."

"Sure I do Sam, how was leave?" She said with a wolfish grin.

"Fine, I saw my brother and his family."

"Good, it's important to do that." Max said awkwardly. Never having had a true family she felt at a loss when it came to such exchanges. She knew with the exception of Joe the odds were in her favor that her 'family' would be around for quite some time.

"Yeah it is, you really do look better Max, whatever you did on leave it worked." Sam said as a crush of personnel filled the hallway. The women exchanged waves and went their ways.

As she walked she thought about meeting Adam and the bond they had formed. She smiled gently.

_She was running again. Always running. She had found the man that had . . . damaged her. Found him and made him pay, pay cash, pay dearly, pay with blood and internal things. She looked behind her and saw the demon form, it was consuming the land between them. She wailed and shouted at it, afraid and angry, no more hurting, no more fear, no more she bared her teeth and readied her claws readied for the impact, for the collision of souls that would bring. . . what?_

_The demon form halted in its pursuit. It stared balefully at her with a wicked gleam in its unholy eye. Its maw filled with jagged stones and shattered glass gaped open, fetid breath spilling forth like deadly gas heavier than air it stained the land and wrapped around her legs like serpents._

_Then it spoke._

"_I won't hurt you." She lowered her hands, felt her fingers as fingers and not claws, her teeth were short and human and not the jagged fangs of a prehistoric predator._

"_It's all right I will help you." The demon form murmured only now, now it was not a demon but a man, a wise man with kindness and iron in his gaze. She opened her mouth to deny him, to command he return to his dry place, his hell, his prison among the pigs. Instead an incoherent whine whispered through her lips like a betrayal. A tear rolled along her too-tight skin chasing the whine._

"_My name is Adam." He took her hand in his like a wayward child's and raised her from the ground, raised her up from panic, and fear, confusion and desperation, raised her into the light of reason and hope, of safety and guidance._

"_You're immortal." Adam said holding her against her ribs. She had sobbed then relieved that there was a word for her condition, a diagnoses, an answer, a reason._

Adam had saved her life, then and again when Mac tried for her and yet again here at the SGC. He was her other half, more than sex, or love, or friendship. She didn't think soul mate even covered it. She needed him needed to know he lived like she needed her quickening.

She returned to her quarters and slept for twelve hours.


	7. Uh Oh

"Duck!" Max hollered as a staff blast splashed into the rock wall Sam was crouched behind. Max scowled and got a visual confirmation of the team's locations and charged. The rogue Jaffa in front of her brought his staff to bear on her she dove at his legs and screamed as white hot plasma smeared her back and shoulders searing the flesh and fusing her uniform material to her savaged flesh. She hit the Jaffa in the shins and knocked him off balance he teetered backwards and crashed to the ground. She got to her feet and pulled her side arm.

"Please do something so I can shoot you in the face." She said raggedly. Her back and shoulder began to heal but it still hurt like hell. The Jaffa remained still, glaring at her balefully.

Jack appeared at her right shoulder and Teal'c at her left.

"Can I kill him sir?" She asked. Jack grunted a negative.

"Next time maybe sergeant. Teal'c?"

Teal'c knelt and bound the other Jaffa's wrists in plastic twine and hauled him upright. The Jaffa stood silently glaring at Teal'c as Daniel and Carter showed up. Max glanced at the wall Sam had been taking cover behind and noted the crumbling mortar and blackened bricks.

"Perimeter is clear sir, looks like he was the last." Sam said breathlessly.

"Max you really don't need to literally charge the enemy." Daniel said taking in her shredded uniform back.

"He nearly hit Major Carter Danny, something none of us would like to see." Max grumbled.

"Besides –" She said peering over her shoulder at her newly healed skin –"its all dramatic and stuff. Look once word gets out that SG-1 can't die we're gonna be a bunch of bad asses."

"All ready are Sergeant." Jack pointed out smugly. Max sighed admitting defeat. Sam couldn't hide a little smile. In reality the Major was well aware as was the rest of the team that the wall Sam had hidden behind could not have withstood too many more direct blasts, the team was releasing tension at Max's expense, not that Max minded. Still if Max hadn't charged they could have fallen back and taken the Jaffa as he advanced, but it was just so much more spectacular to charge.

The team led the Jaffa to the gate and dialed home. As the group headed into the wormhole Max tripped the enemy Jaffa sending him ass over teakettle into the wormhole. Max was still laughing as she stepped into the SGC. The Jaffa was sprawled on the ramp.

"Oh man, that was _good_." She chortled. General Hammond was awaiting the team. Max clammed up at the General's expression. Okay it had been unprofessional but still.

"He shot me sir." She said and hastily unable to completely squash the defensive tone in her voice and helped the big man to his feet. The Jaffa shook her away impatiently.

"Colonel debrief in one hour." The General said shortly although there was a little smile on his lips. O'Neill nodded brusquely picking up on his commander's mood. Max sighed but bit it off. It looked like something big was cooking. She filed out with the rest of the team.

Once in the locker room she began to strip down. Her whole uniform was trashed, the shirt had no back and was missing one shoulder and the waist of her pants was burned away as well. She laughed and tossed it into the trash. She cleaned up quickly and put on a new uniform. She met Sam at her lab and the two made small talk while Sam set up a test.

"Seriously Max you don't have to do things like that."

"Like what? Tackling an angry Jaffa two feet taller than me with staff weapon in hand? I know Sam but the thing is I _can_ do that and they don't expect it."

"Until word gets out about you." Sam warned while organizing a set of slides under a video microscope.

"What does that mean? 'word gets out'." Max scoffed.

"Don't look at me it does. Just wait and see." Sam said and gestured for Max to extend her arm. Max sighed and obeyed. Sam gently excised an inch square section of skin and put it on a slide. Max winced and blew on the wound as the skin flowed and healed. Sam focused her optical instruments on the flesh and began taking measurements she reached over and flipped a switch recording her observations.

"How many more samples are you going to need?" Max asked pulling her sleeve down over the tender new skin.

"I'm not sure, I'm not a biologist so its slow going I could always –"

"No, Sam no bringing anyone else in. Doc Frasier sure but no one outside the SGC I mean that. I don't want the president's doctor poking at me let alone half the armed services hacks get me? Uh, M'am." She added with a smirk.

"Then grit your teeth because you'll probably have to give up another pound of flesh. . . Sergeant." Sam said smiling into her eyepiece.

Max sighed.

Later that day at the chow hall Max was debating finishing her meal when Jack arrived. She grinned at him and moved aside to give him room to sit.

"Hi." She said. He sighed and sat.

"Briefing in two hours."

"Good stuff?"

"Secret stuff the civilians that run the chow hall aren't cleared to hear." Jack said pointedly. Max shrugged and finished her meal. She hit the gym after eating. She imagined the rest of the team had caught some Zs during the day but fact was after nearly being killed she did not want to sleep. It was too close to that dark nowhere she visited all too regularly.

She retrieved her practice sword and hit the gym hard. She wanted to be loose and ready when the briefing came. She hated to be caught off guard.

The briefing was straight forward, well as straight forward as they ever were for the SGC's flagship team.

"Okay so lemme get this right you want us to go to this free Jaffa planet, be 'advisors' to their military and press flesh?" Max asked the briefer. He was a technical sergeant one rank above Max and he resented her tone.

"Yes, Staff Sergeant Holloway I do." He growled. Bad idea, immediately Max's hackles went up. She stood and started to advance on the man, Jack reached up from his seat and put a hand on Max's stomach halting her.

"What the Sergeant meant, Holloway, is that our orders require we go to the free Jaffa planet and press flesh, isn't that right sergeant?" Jack inquired coldly. The man hid his sudden fear well. He swallowed minutely and nodded, his voice didn't even waver when he spoke.

"Colonel O'Neill is absolutely correct." He agreed. The agreement was enough to get Max to back down for the moment but she committed his name, rank, and job title to memory. The briefer finally gathered his notes and left. The team remained seated. Max let the silence crawl by for a moment before her metaphorical hackles settled and she stood up.

"Max we love you but stop it." Daniel said wearily. Max scowled.

"Stop what Danny?" She asked obstinately she almost folded her arms but resisted the childish impulse.

"Max you cannot get into a fistfight with every person who wants to lord their rank over you. Unless you buck for OTS a quarter of the personnel _not_ including the higher ranking enlisted are going to outrank you, they are going to resent your disrespectful attitude, they are going to attempt to get you to back down and Colonel O'Neill and I will not always be there to save the situation, unless you want to land in the brig or actually kill a superior –"

"I've fought superior officers." She snapped.

"I'm not talking about the mat or the gym or even combat training Max." Daniel snapped back.

"Neither am I, look I've taken down all kinds of men, women, immortals and aliens Danny if your lot can't deal with me, give me more rank or take it all away. I was fine as a freelancer."

"Now now kids break it up. We have a mission in twelve. Carter wipe up the blood." Jack grunted glaring at Max.

Max made a face at Jack and watched the other four members of SG-1 file out. She sighed and scrubbed her face.

She couldn't help but bow up on anyone attempting to present a threat. It was how she survived. If you could frighten off a potential challenger then you never had to fight him, or her. The fact that she enjoyed the fighting and the killing but chose to warn her enemies off anyway spoke highly of her, at least she thought so. She stood and stretched languidly. She wondered if maybe she could convince the powers that be to let her loose for a trip to Seacouver. Maybe if she got the rest of the team to come and keep an eye on her. She smiled it might be worth a shot. In the meantime she had an appointment with her shrink and her bed.

* * *

They arrived without incident on the free Jaffa planet. It was one of the few of its kind. The populace were terrified they would fall back into the grip of the Goa'uld. Consequently and logically they had sought out the legendary SG-1 complete with Teal'c the infamous Sho'va. Max kept her mouth shut and eyes wide while the rest of the team went about their business.

She followed Daniel for awhile while he shadowed Jack and translated for him. Sam and Teal'c were in another part of the Jaffa city demonstrating earth weaponry. Max exchanged a look with Jack and took the opportunity to slip away and have a look at the Jaffa. She knew Teal'c well and knew he was a good and noble man with a killer sense of humor, well from _his _point of view. So she was curious to see more of his people.

She passed crowded streets and alleys packed with venders. The city had been retaken by the Jaffa, Max didn't know the details but she assumed whoever or she reminded herself, whatever had inhabited it previously had it seemed been significantly smaller than the Jaffa. The doorways and similar structures were all just short enough to force the mighty Jaffa to stoop. She wondered if perhaps it was a defensive adaptation, forcing any invaders to stoop to enter leaving them vulnerable to attack should their intentions be other than honorable. Or the inhabitants could have averaged a much smaller size. She kept walking her weapon strung across her chest, radio on her shoulder. She didn't bother to hide her intentions, she was a small woman armed to the teeth and wearing an SGC uniform and patch, hiding wasn't really an option. Her Egyptian and Goa'uld were rusty but enough to get by in the city.

She took a break from the near desert heat and sat on a too low bench in a large square. A band of Jaffa children around ten years of age were roaming the square. They seemed to be involved in some kind of elaborate and involved game. There were two teams with an equal number of boys and girls in each. She watched as first one side and then the other swept through the ranks of the opposing side. It looked similar to red rover which she vaguely remembered playing as a child except that every child who impacted another in the line was scolded and ordered to the sidelines. The goal seemed to be to avoid actual contact but come as close as possible.

She watched for an hour or so. She sipped water from her canteen and gnawed on an energy bar. After awhile the children broke into a random grouping there were no sides. They began facing off in pairs and fighting. Their style was raw and rough several children were cut and suffered large bruises but they kept fighting. Max was fascinated. The children's play seemed to be about bravado and war, the near contact courage to risk personal damage or shame by approaching such an enemy. She shook her head. These people would understand her better than nearly anyone at the SGC.

Her radio crackled to life startling the battling children. Max slipped the wrapper of her energy bar into her thigh pocket and keyed her radio.

"Colonel do you need me?"

"Rendezvous at the council house in twenty."

"Roger." She said and released the radio. The children stared at her with wide glittering eyes. Max waved and left. The Council house was literally the house of the council, the governing party of this group of free Jaffa. Max arrived five minutes early and grabbed a seat outside. The council house faced a square, similar to the one the children had played in but much smaller she sat in front of it under a shaded overhang on a small bench. The bench fit her nicely, her knees weren't in her chin and her feet weren't dangling. The people of this place had definitely been smaller than average.

Jack appeared in the doorway he looked displeased. Max stood and nodded at him in place of a salute. He acknowledged her and stepped close. The walls had ears so the two took a stroll and talked quietly.

"Whoever lived here before the Jaffa were much smaller what's the story?"

"Supposedly it was in ruins and the Jaffa just took advantage."

"Pretty nice place for a ruin." Max said skeptically. Jack shrugged, his eyes ticking off the nearby Jaffa citizenry.

"Jack I'm just gonna say it something stinks here."

"Agreed. Tell you what for a bunch of people who supposedly asked for us to come here and help them they're playing things awfully close to the chest." Jack said with a scowl.

"Not so much with the cooperation huh?" Jack nodded grimly.

"When Sam and Teal'c get here get their opinions and send them in primed."

"For?"

"I want the truth from these people or we're out of here. Have Sam and Teal'c stand guard inside I want you out here. If anything goes wrong go for the gate. Max look at me, I mean it, I know you can't stand the idea of leaving us but just trust me and for once follow an order if things go wrong you go for the gate and get help."

Max ground her teeth and tried to argue but Jack just skewered her with a glare.

"On one condition, we make it through this you either let me go to Seacouver on my own or only you guys come with me to babysit." She said and stuck her jaw out stubbornly.

"Done." Jack said. Max frowned and felt her stomach churn. That was far too easy. This was bad, very very very bad. She swallowed hard and gripped Jack's forearm looking up at the taller man she nodded solemnly.

"The hounds of hell couldn't stop me." She whispered. He nodded shortly and re-entered the council house.

She stood tensely and waited for Sam and Teal'c.

There was a loud bang farther off in the city. Max keyed her radio and alerted the Colonel. He appeared and frowned. Behind him she could see movement including the council the house was named for. She glared balefully at the council members. She scowled and turned her gaze back toward the noise. A thin tendril of pale smoke curled skyward.

"Sir?" She asked.

"Sam, Teal'c back here _now_." Jack ordered over the radio.

"Sir its going to take a minute it looks like there was some kind of explosion-" There was a loud burst of static cutting off Sam's transmission followed by silence.

"Major Carter? Teal'c? Report!" He ordered. He nodded at Max. She freed her weapon and took the safety off with her finger off the trigger but primed for battle she turned on her heel and began loping toward the smoke. She would find her friends, she would save SG-1 she would not lose any more people.


	8. Rubble

The city seemed to close in on Max as she ran her breath grew ragged and her knees burned, her ankles complained as she raced across the unevenly paved streets. Once she stumbled and caught herself, one hand pressed to the rough dusty stucco exterior of one of the hundreds of three storey or higher buildings clustered inside the city gates. She gasped for a moment and caught the gaze of a small boy. The boy stared at her wide eyed and surprised. She spared him a grin, straightened and took off again.

She ran on and on, the people and buildings she passed became a solid brownish blur, a bright blue vase on a window sill smeared across her vision, a red shawl on a Jaffa woman's shoulder, a deep green robe, all else was brown and tan and faded. The only constant was the tendril in the sky, like a demon ladder to heaven.

She raced until her lungs felt ragged and she tasted blood in her throat, her feet slapped dully on the rough road surface and her weapon began to drag on her. She slid to a halt in a dead end. Puffs of dust drifted over her dirty boots. She checked her weapon again and began to back out of the alley she made it clear, did a three hundred sixty degree scan of the immediate region and then darted through the streets trying to get a bead on the smoke again. Finally she found a market and forced a path through the milling merchants and customers.

Again she began to run Jack's voice crackled over her radio.

"Sam! Teal'c respond!" Jack called. The urgency and carefully masked fear in Jack's voice was all the encouragement Max needed, she renewed her frenetic pace hell bent on finding out what had happened to her team. Finally at last, as her vision was graying out and her legs were numbing and growing unsteady she reached the source of the smoke.

A building had collapsed. Judging by the gathered crowd and the panicked wails of horrified grief it had been large and used as a housing. Max scanned the crowd looking for Sam's bright blond hair or Teal'c's massive form. They were nowhere to be seen. Then Max spotted a cluster of Jaffa near the base of the collapse. She hurried over, they seemed to be intent on something in the rubble.

As she approached she heard Carter's voice demanding they help her. Max shoved through the crowd and was rewarded with the sight of Carter's sweaty, dusty, red face and tousled blond hair. Relief so strong it was like a physical blow swept through Max she tottered slightly and regained her balance. She forced the last few Jaffa standing between her and Carter out of the way and saw what Carter was working on.

It was Teal'c. He lay gray faced and very, very still, piled on him was what looked like a half ton of rubble. Max made a nearly inaudible noise and dropped to her knees next to the big Jaffa. He had a pulse, it was thin, thready, and weak but there. Max caught her breath and stifled her relief, there was work to do.

"He's in shock." Max muttered, she keyed her radio.

"Jack I've found them Major Carter is fine but Teal'c has been badly injured we need an emergency medical team to this location immediately." She keyed off and waited for the colonel's reply while she poked at the rubble attempting to see if it might be possible to move enough of it to get her friend free.

"Understood I'll contact the SGC gimme you're coordinates." Jack said tightly, she could hear angry voices and arguing in the crowd. Max pulled out her map and made an educated guess on their location.

"Make sure they have locator beacons I can always hook 'em and drag 'em here or Danny can escort them I'm sure I got noticed." Max said the locator beacons were similar to the Iris codes the teams memorized. They could be keyed on and lock onto each other, emitting a happy little directional beep guiding the wearers to one another or a static goal. Jack agreed and silence fell over the radios. Carter held Teal'c's clammy hand and sponged at his face talking to him while Max continued examining and probing the rubble. If she could free Teal'c it was possible his symbiote would help him stay alive long enough for Sam to staunch any bleeding.

Max ordered two nearby Jaffa to hand over their cloaks. The men scowled and muttered until a woman thumped one on the shoulder and hollered at him, the two men obeyed. Max cut one into strips for bandages and laid the other out on the ground; she folded it over and scrunched the sides to make makeshift handles. She poked at the rubble a little longer and then made a decision.

"Carter I'm going to move some of this if we're lucky it will shift off Teal'c and we can give him medical attention. If not it may shift and crush us all, I want you to be ready to run, you and I both know Teal'c wouldn't want us to die pointlessly. Come on, on your feet, keep holding his hand but be ready to move." Her tone was gruffer and angrier than she meant but Sam didn't react.

"Okay." Carter whispered, she readied herself to run but kept one hand in Teal'c's still murmuring to him. Max shooed the crowd away and nodded at Carter, Carter squeezed Teal'c's hand. Max began prying small boulders loose and then larger until the whole pile shifted and groaned. She froze prepared to bolt but the mass settled she kept prying and removing rocks until she found a keystone. The rock was positioned so that if it were removed the majority of the pile would move too, the trick was to insure it moved away from Teal'c and Carter.

Max sighed and rubbed her neck. She checked the sun and wiped her brow. She reached forward to grip the rock and felt a hand on her arm. Startled she looked up, it was Jack.

"You scared the daylights out of me." Max breathed. She had sweated heavily on her run and the heat and stress of the day had only increased her discomfort. She sloughed off her vest and moved her weapon so it dangled from her back, safety on.

"Trying to get him out?" Jack asked kneeling next to Teal'c and checked his pulse.

"He's in Kel'no'reem, trying to save his energy." Carter said. Jack nodded. Max arched a questioning eyebrow at Jack, Jack frowned and then nodded minutely. Kill or cure, the only way to save Teal'c was to get him out of the rubble the only way they could do that in time to do any good was to shift it off him.

Max gripped the keystone again and did a silent three count. At three she hauled on the stone and muttered a prayer. Slowly at first the stone groaned free, until it was clear then the pile itself moaned and swayed. Max stood over her friends, crouched around Teal'c and readied herself to run-knowing as she did it that she wouldn't or couldn't take that step and leave Teal'c to die. Almost imperceptibly at first the mass began to move away from the huddled humans. Then the sway became an avalanche and the pile of rubble cascaded to the ground, away from Teal'c. Huge amounts of dust filled the air choking the crowd of spectators and the rescuers. As the clouds settled Max appeared amidst the dust and rubble, she was crouched over her friends' heads she straightened slowly coated in tan powder and looked down.

They were okay. Sam and Jack were fine, even Teal'c was unburied. But he was bleeding, badly. Max picked up a strip of the cloth she had shredded shook it vigorously to get the majority of the dust off and began bandaging Teal'c's shattered and mangled legs. She cursed as she worked, she had never learned much first aid, it was redundant for immortals. Jack stepped in and used another length of cloth to tie a tourniquet around each of Teal'c's upper thighs and checked his vitals.

"Let's get him on the travois." Jack grunted. Carter had retrieved the other cloak and held it ready. Gently holding his limbs in place and trying not to jar his mangled legs they rolled Teal'c onto the blanket, Carter cradled his head, keeping his neck from moving as Max and Jack each took a side. Max was dismayed by how hideously light the Travois was, how easy it was to lift Teal'c.

"God damnit you can't die Teal'c I haven't kicked your ass in the gym yet." Max growled.

"There will yet be time." Teal'c murmured from the depths of Kel'no'reem. Max gave a little cry of joy at Teal'c's banter and tightened her grip. Jack glanced at her to insure she was okay to keep going. She nodded tightly.

They moved as quickly as they could without compromising Teal'c's safety. After twenty minutes of carefully negotiating the streets the SGC med team and Daniel appeared at the end of a narrow crooked street. Max shouted and the Daniel zeroed in on them, he charged toward them yelling for the medics to follow. Jack, Carter and Max gently lowered Teal'c to the ground. Jack checked Teal'c's pulse and stepped back as the medics arrived.

They swarmed over him like hungry bees and then transferred him to a back board. They looped a nylon harness around the backboard two people on each side attached the harness to themselves and slowly they stood synchronously. The four med techs began to head back the gate at a smooth trot. The rest of SG-1 took up arms and escorted them.

As the med team and SG-1 stepped through the gate, Max took a deep breath and stepped backwards. She watched as the wormhole closed. She had maybe two hours before Jack either came himself or sent someone to fetch her back. So one hour in an alien city wracked by disaster, one hour to find out why someone conveniently dropped a building on Teal'c, Sho'va and beacon of hope to the free Jaffa.


	9. Wierd Reunion

Max stepped away from the dais supporting the city's gate and took stock. A medium sized crowd of citizen Jaffa had gathered, attracted by the dramatic spectacle of Tau'ri frantically attempting to save a Jaffa. Max nodded at them and sat on the steps of the Stargate. She dug around in her pockets and pulled a pack of gum out she chewed on a stick and thought.

The milling group of Jaffa didn't approach her and after awhile the busy citizenry wandered off for the most part, perhaps to help with the dismal rescue efforts among the rubble, or to carry on their daily business, whatever the case Max didn't care.

First the feral children. What the hell was that about? According to SG-1s mission reports the only time they showed up was when Max was along. No team other than SG-1 had encountered them. Even when Max was loaned to other teams there had been no encounters. Then Jack has a savage near death encounter with a different group of Ferals, and now Teal'c. She blew a bubble and popped it. She chewed slowly, like a cow mulling her cud. What was the connection? Max? but why would Max's presence on the team mean Jack and Teal'c get nailed? She blew another bubble and when it popped a child in the crowd crawled next to Max and sat near her fascinated. Max gave her a stick of gum and mimicked chewing. The child obeyed and made happy surprised noises. Max fell to thinking again and something she'd said drifted back to her, 'when word gets out that SG-1 is immortal'. She stopped chewing and stood up. She rubbed her jaw with an intent expression on her face. Was it her fault? Had her presence made SG-1 more of a target than normal? She ran a hand through her hair and stopped pacing in front of the gate.

"Hey asshole! You wanna know who's immortal on my team? Me! That's it! Just me baby! So you wanna dance? You ask _me_! Not Jack, not Daniel, not Carter and not Teal'c! JUST ME!" She snarled. She glared over the heads of the crowd the gum chewing child had retrieved the pack as it fell from Max's lap and darted into the crowd. Max glared out at the crowd dropping her gaze to take in their surprised and intrigued faces. There was no sign of a meaningful reaction. Max walked down to the DHD and hit the chevrons for Earth. She flipped on her GDO transmitter and waited for the wormhole to stabilize.

She walked up to the watery surface of the wormhole and felt something warm on her back. She turned around to see what was happening and a shot rang out, a shot from an earth weapon she felt an impact in her chest followed by several more. She staggered backwards and looked down. Rich hot arterial blood was welling out of several holes in her chest, she opened her mouth to speak and a gush of hot blood flowed out instead. She staggered back knowing that if she didn't make it through the wormhole before she died she was in deep trouble. Relief filled her as she felt the bitter ice of the wormhole enclose her body. As she leaned back into it and began to fade she saw a face before her, she didn't know it.

* * *

She opened her eyes in the infirmary. She sat up quickly and put her bare feet on the cold concrete. She shivered and looked around for Teal'c. The big Jaffa was lying still and quiet in the opposite corner. Max shivered again in the cool air. She pulled the blanket off her bed and pulled it around her. Paper clothes just never cut it, she was willing to bet that patients in paper clothes in Jackson Mississippi during a heat wave were cold. She padded over to Teal'c and sat in a vacant chair at his side. She watched the monitors attached to him and was pleased to see that the vitals were good, well, for a human they were good for a Jaffa they might be a little low.

She sat until Frasier arrived. Frasier gave Max a spare set of clothes and let her wait with Teal'c until Jack or someone else arrived to question Max. When Jack did arrive Max nearly bowled him over in her eagerness to speak.

"Its _me _Jack, I'm the one, the reason they went after you and Teal'c its me." She said bitterly.

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked exasperated he didn't need her freaking out or going off on a vengeance binge.

"Look, remember what I said about word getting out about us? The immortality thing? Well word did get out, and a hell of a lot quicker than we thought that's why you and Teal'c have been targeted they're trying to figure out who's immortal and whether or not it can be spread. Come on Jack it makes sense."

"Okay forget about that- for the moment." He added at her expression. She was pissed and unconsciously searching for a target.

"What the hell happened? Why didn't you come through the gate? As soon as we tried to redial you showed up, dead, how do you go through a stargate dead?"

Max quickly filled Jack in on all the details.

"An earth gun?"

"You betcha." Max agreed.

"Damn sounds like NID well, rogue NID anyway." Jack sighed. He sat across from Max for awhile. Finally Max stood and went to the chow hall for two meals to go. She met Daniel in the hall.

"Sight for sore eyes!" She cried and wrapped the scientist in a bear hug, no mean feat since he towered over her. He laughed as she put him down.

"Okay just once I'd like to see you come back from a mission in one piece with a whole uniform, just something to shoot for." He laughed. She grinned at him.

"Heading to the infirmary?"

"Yeah." Daniel admitted.

"Good, you eat yet? I'll get three ready to go's and we can like feast or something." Daniel agreed and kept going Max grabbed three pre-packaged meals also referred to without love as 'boxed nasties'. She returned to the infirmary and tossed one to Jack and Danny each. She sat and regarded her own. She set it aside and got caught up with Jack and Daniel. She was grateful that Jack did not once again ream her for disobeying an order.

She literally couldn't help it. It was hardwired into her that if there was a threat to a mortal she cared about then she took the threat upon herself. She assumed that risk and did whatever was necessary to protect that mortal. It was part of the reason why she did not trust or like mortals or other immortals on first meeting. Her allegiance had to be earned but once earned it was a powerful asset. She wasn't even fully aware of her pattern. Weston suspected and Jack was fairly certain of it but Max was clueless. She thought of herself as her own person, free spirited but efficient. The realization of her pattern of rescues would have stunned her. So Jack did not yell at her for disobeying an order.

Frasier arrived as soon as the three began to pick at their meals.

"Teal'c is stable the surgeons managed to save his legs."

'Why isn't he awake?"

"Well he suffered a lot of physical trauma and blood loss, without his symbiote he would certainly have died. Even with the symbiote it was a very near thing. If you had not gotten him back when you did we would likely have lost him." Frasier smiled sympathetically and left to check her other patients.

Finally after several hours waiting and talking Max pleaded exhaustion and returned to her quarters. She took a very long hot shower and fell into bed. She woke screaming she was wet with sweat and her throat was raw from both her silent and not so silent screams. She was breathing hard, ignoring the tickle as her throat healed she got to her feet and staggered into the bathroom. Her face was white, her eyes rimmed in shadow. She rinsed her mouth and spat bloody spittle. She bared her teeth and rinsed again. Sighing she rubbed her neck and tried to remember her dream. She gave up after a few moments. Truthfully it could be a remembrance of dozens of unpleasant experiences. She turned off the light and returned to bed.

She woke exhausted and aching. She sighed and dressed desultorily. She knew it was going to be a long and boring day. She didn't know what the NID was but it obviously bode ill for her. She brushed her teeth and hair and headed off to find Sam. She wondered what new experiments her friend had come up with.

Reticent at first to participate in Sam's experiments Max had slowly come around. She agreed that it would be good to figure out how her 'gift' worked however she did not believe Sam or anyone else would be able to pinpoint the cause. If that occurred she didn't think it would be something that could be given to mortals through a vaccine or a pill. Still she would humor her friend. Also since Max had started her sessions with Weston and Sam had been routed Weston's notes Sam had backed off on her insistence on Max's generous and noble goals. Fact was Max didn't really have any noble goals she was a pragmatist at heart. Still it didn't cause her much discomfort and it made Sam happy. As long as the rest of the immortal world didn't know what she was doing it was even harmless.

"Hey." Max said poking her head into Sam's lab. Sam was peering into her computer screen with an intent look. Some incomprehensible formula and computer model were dancing across the battered monitor. Max took a seat and waited for Sam to notice her. She sat backwards on a roller chair she put her forearms on the back and rested her head. The sleepless night before caught up with her.

_She was hiding again. Her father, drunk or high was looking for her again wanting to hurt her, to use her as a punching bag, as an excuse, an object to blame. She flexed her eight year old fist and swore in silence. She glared at the door to the cupboard. He had not thought to look here yet. Eventually she knew he would find her, find her and haul her out and beat her harder because she hid. She knew her brothers were smarter, they didn't hid anymore, just agreed with the father creature and took the beatings. Sara could not would not do that. _

_She hated him, the stink of his after shave and stale sweat made her gag when she did laundry she prayed to be taken away. But after Tommy was taken to he E.R. from school her father made them move and kept them out of school. The boys could go as long as they didn't have P.E or any class where their bruises might show. But, not little Sara. She was taught to read and do sums and then kept at home, by her daddy's side. At first her mother had objected, then her father had force fed her his own poisons and owned her mind. Sara hated her for that. _

_For failing her children for all the years she stayed with the father creature, for allowing him to compromise her soul. For taking away her childhood_

_Sara shifted in her hiding place, the father creature was getting close. She heard his heavy stumbling intoxicated steps outside her cupboard. She narrowed her jaded eight year old eyes and prepared for his thick rough hands to pry her out and administer a more savage beating for her defiance. But he moved away she allowed a little hope to creep into her savaged little heart. Then the door opened._

Max sat up with a gasp, her movement sent the chair rolling, knocking her off balance she slipped off the faux leather upholstery and hit the ground. Sam looked over at her startled.

"Ow, it got me in my dignity." Max grumbled and got up. Sam laughed and pushed the chair back to Max.

"I don't have anything ready for you yet." She said between snickers. Max was just glad Sam hadn't realized Max was dreaming. She grunted and waved goodbye massaging her presumably bruised posterior for effect. She had landed on her face not her ass, and either way it had healed by the time she got to her feet, but it was funnier that way.

"Fine I can take a hint, I'll just go slaughter some paper at the range." Max said in a fake depressive tone. Sam laughed as Max left.

Max checked out a variety of weapons from the armory and cleared them through the range master. She wanted to test her skills. She had a habit of frequently re-evaluating her skills. She liked to know she was sharp. She ran through the standard issue SGC weaponry, moved on to standard U.S. military weaponry and then moved onto the exotics. As she was standing and preparing to aim her staff weapon she felt her stomach grumble and glanced at the clock on the indoor range. It had been seven hours. She shrugged and readied her stance. She aimed carefully let out a slow breath and engaged the firing mechanism.

The paper target erupted in flame. Max frowned. The problem with the paper was it would burst into flame with the slightest impact from a staff weapon. She flipped on the red safety light and headed down range. She replaced the paper with a ceramic plate and returned to the firing line. She turned off the red safety light and took aim again. As she fired she heard the door to the range open. She ignored the distraction and was rewarded with a neat circular hole the size of a quarter sizzling in the center of the ceramic plate. Max smiled in satisfaction and set the staff aside.

"Nice." A voice said shattering her congratulatory reverie. She smiled and turned toward the semi-familiar friendly voice, and then froze, it was Adam.

"Holy shit!" She shrieked and charged him. They embraced tightly Max sighing into her friend/lover's shirt and holding him close, Adam returned her affection and slowly released her. She leaned back and looked into his changeling eyes. He grinned and wiped a stray hair out of her face.

"Why aren't you in chains?" She demanded trying to sound stern but only managing to sound suspicious.

"Uh yeah, well that's a long story that I sort of promised not to tell." Adam said sheepishly. She marveled, never had she seen him sheepish.

"Fine, for _now_, god it is so good to see you!" She said and handed him a weapon.

"Rusty?" She challenged with a grin. She stood back and watched him take aim. Watched the line of his strong shoulders and back, watched his meticulous movements. She loved him in everything he did, but it was not romantic but more than friendship. She knew Adam would always be in her life, knew enough of his past to know that she could tell him absolutely anything and commit almost any act – so long as it was justified- and he would not leave her, judge her, or turn her away.

He laughed as he sent a handful of shots down range, annihilating his target's heart. He straightened and handed her the weapon.

"Do Jack and the others know you're here?"

"More or less."

"Meaning?"

"I'm kind of on probation. I have to get locked in at night but I get to help your team." He admitted. Adam refused to go off world and had at one point been a De Facto prisoner like Max. A few hundred thousand dollars in property damage and lost equipment and a man hunt later he was free, until now.

"Adam did you get caught?" Max asked genuinely suspicious.

"Maybe." He said cryptically and avoided her eyes.

She thumped him in the shoulder and stood nose to nose.

"Come on just tell me, this place is worse than a locker room I'll find out eventually." She said. She could feel his warm breath on her face. His breath was sweet and slightly minty.

"It's slightly embarrassing." He said and actually colored slightly.

"Pride cometh before a fall." She said leaning into him. He wrapped a strong lean arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a big brother side hug.

"I got arrested by Interpol and shipped back." He confessed finally.

Unable to help herself she burst into laughter. Adam pulled her close and gave her a noogie. She didn't need to know that he had been on his yacht in the south pacific at one moment, then wrapped in a pillar of bluish light and in Hammond's office the next. Some secrets were better kept.

They left still wrestling and bickering. Max was overjoyed to see her friend again. She wasn't sure why he was there or how the SGC had gotten a hold of him again but for the moment she didn't care. If Adam had been coerced he was hiding it awfully well. More so than she thought he was capable of she was content to know he lived and was happy and here.

At dinner that evening the two reminisced about Seacouver and their old friends. They exchanged stories half in code, not intentionally but their reminisces were irrelevant to the SG team and they ended up involving so many unknown persons and situations that they may as well have been speaking a foreign language. At one point Jack leaned over to Daniel.

"You following this?" the Colonel asked.

"Nope." Daniel said cheerfully.

"You _are_ a linguist, right?"

"Yep but not an anthropologist, or a mind reader." Daniel pointed out just as cheerfully.

Jack found the interplay between the two immortals heartening. Max seemed more human, more relaxed, happier. The news that Teal'c was awake and would be back on full duty in a few weeks added another level of celebration to the air. The rest of SG-1 watched in amused confusion as Max began reenacting some drunken situation with a bad Scottish accent.

"Ach no lassie you musn't!" Max crowed and erupted into giggles. Adam snorted and poured another glass of beer.

"I didn't think the chow hall served beer?" Sam asked the colonel pointedly.

"I had a chat with them. Hey its not like they can grab a steak and a brew downtown, I would never deprive a man of beer, that's just, barbaric." Jack said miffed. Carter laughed and strode over to the immortals she helped herself to some beer and sat down. Jack arched a questioning eyebrow at Daniel. Daniel for his part shrugged and headed over.


	10. Beer

Max staggered back to her quarters in the wee pre-dawn hours, she and Adam had continued to knock back huge amounts of beer until SG-1 had begged off and then started betting when the alcohol poisoning would take effect. She and Adam had formed a four legged half conscious symbiotic creature attempting to navigate back to her quarters. Upon successfully locating the room and negotiating the lock the two toppled on to her rough blankets and lay unmoving entangled like an octopus for a few minutes. Finally they separated and sprawled more comfortably. A few minutes later loud drunken snores permeated the room. Both were fully clothed and utterly drunk.

_She was fourteen ready to leave the hell hole foster home she had landed in this time, ready to find her way, she could dodge the authorities for four years no sweat. _

_She made it out of the cramped ranch style house she had been living in easily. The foster parents were more interested in the state checks than the kids. She headed toward the center of town content to leave the crap hole and its stereotype misery behind. _

_She ran on and on until dawn broke the horizon and then she found a cubby hole and slept. She was woken in the morning by a boot to her rib and mocking laughter. She had found her first street fight._

Max moaned in her sleep and rolled she collided with Adam and pulled his arm close to her, like a comforting stuffed animal or familiar blanket.

_She was sixteen but posing as eighteen. She worked a real job with a fake name and even had her own apartment, well a room in a house in a not too awful neighborhood. She closed late one night and had to walk home alone. Half way there she was mugged and nearly raped. _

Max sighed and curled against Adam, finding more comfort in his scent and warm presence.

_She was in her twenties, shy and awkward with the 'normal' people she worked with. She used her birth name again, Sara Lock she was of age and didn't have to worry. She was an office assistant a good job for someone with no real education. She avoided socializing at work content to go back to her cozy apartment and read out of date math textbooks and work on her G.E.D. _

_She was walking to the bus and a stranger grabbed her, hands like iron he held her and smothered her face. A strange cloying scent invaded her lungs, numbing her thoughts and making her clumsy. She tried to scream but only managed a whisper. _

_She saw glimpses, the dark form over her, the pressure in her body his bruising grip on her arms as he rutted like an animal. A flash of glittering steel and predatory teeth. A blast of cold as her clothing was shredded. Hot white pain as her life was stolen. The heat of fresh wet blood, her own, soaking her bare skin._

_Then the panic and horror of waking up like a corpse. She held a scrap of the animal's clothing in one hand, apparently the drug had not dulled her enough. Or he wanted some fight left in her. She rolled over and vomited until her belly was empty._

_She wiped at the crusted blood and more disturbing matter dried to a scale on her thighs. The sun was barely up, she didn't live far. Her shoes were gone._

_She wrapped her torn dress around her as well as she could and stumbled along. The ground was hard, nearly frozen. Her feet went numb from cold. She gasped and watched her breath steam the air. _

_Her apartment was farther away than she thought. _

Adam shifted in his own dreams, he rolled onto his side and pulled Max close to him, he leaned his face into her hair and sighed.

_She found him somehow, the details faded in her rage. She held him bound and bleeding for hours. She demanded answers. Why he had chosen her, what he did to her, every detail that she might repay the favor, the final answer, why she lived, why every nick and scratch, every bruise and abrasion healed almost instantly. He did not know so she killed him._

Her dreams faded and her face smoothed as true sleep enveloped her.

The next morning she had a raging hangover. Immortals could not heal from dehydration. While Adam slept on oblivious, Max took a long hot shower and tried to not let her head explode. She swallowed a half dozen painkillers and walked back into her room. She kicked Adam who merely groaned. She laughed and dressed. She left him a note and went to work.

Sam couldn't use her since she was dehydrated and drugged so she wandered over to Daniel's office and helped him with some translating.

"So you two had a pretty good night." Daniel said innocently.

"Yeah remind me to thank Jack for the beer." Max said deliberately ignoring Daniel's subtext.

"Why is he here?" Daniel asked obviously referring to Adam.

"Well." Max started sitting up and putting down the artifact she'd been examining, "He _said_ he was picked up by Interpol and sent here. I, however, greatly doubt that."

"Yeah well considering the stink he made getting out of here I could see Interpol having a problem getting their grips on him." Daniel agreed. Truth was Adam could and had outfoxed damn near everyone who had ever hunted him.

"Yeah he does tend to be eel like at times." Max admitted picking up the artifact again.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's between you guys?" Daniel continued.

"He saved me. Told me what I was, trained me, accepted who I was what I had done in the past and would likely do in the future. Adam has a past Danny that makes me look like a nun."

Daniel arched an eyebrow.

"Which is a subject for another day, but no Danny boy we didn't sleep together, although we have in the past." She said getting to the point.

Danny looked confused. Max laughed and shook her head. When Adam breezed in an hour later Daniel muttered something inaudible and went on a coffee run.

"Something I said?" Adam asked in confusion.

"Heh not so much, have a seat." Max said through a smirk.

She began describing the artifacts they were working on or rather, describing where they were found and in what circumstances since they had really no idea what they were for.

Daniel returned with three cups of coffee.

"Feeling better?" Adam asked all innocence.

"Yep- er no, just needed some air I guess." Daniel said unthinking; he made a face and started to apologize to Max for mentioning the outside, Max still wasn't allowed outside the mountain.

"S'okay Danny." Max said with a laugh.

"What they still won't let you out?" Adam asked surprised.

"Yeah well they have their reasons." Max said and reached for her coffee. "And your little escapade a year ago _really_ didn't help my cause." she said laughing.


	11. New Standings

Jack breezed into Danny's office disturbing the studious silence the two immortals and Daniel had fallen into. He sat on Danny's desk and pried the artifact Max was examining out of her hand.

"Hi, you guys do know its Saturday, right?" Jack growled.

Max smirked and snatched the artifact back.

"Okay I know Daniel gets his kicks looking at this stuff but come on, Max? Adam? You guys really dig this?"

"Recreation options are limited on base, sir." Max said with a twinkle in her eye.

"Right, which is why we are going fishing. My place, come on." Max froze and cocked her head. Out? It had been slightly over a year since Adam had brought them to the SGC and in all that time they had been barred from the surface.

"You're letting us out of the mountain?" She asked cautiously.

"Let's just say that we have it on good authority that we can get you back here without too much trouble." Jack said cryptically. Max sighed and shook her head. Adam carefully did no react to the gibe.

"I'm in, Adam?" She asked.

"I go where you go." He said finally.

"Even through the gate?" She asked piqued.

"No, not through the gate." Adam said with a smile.

"Oh come on Adam just once?" She wheedled.

"Okay kids you can argue in the car but if we don't leave now we won't have time to fish at all." Jack said and gestured toward the door. Max and Adam stood up and headed out abruptly. Daniel remained engrossed in his work until Jack kicked his chair. The irritated scientist smiled and put his work away. Heading after Jack he turned off the lights and locked the door.

"So Jack are we really going fishing?" Max asked. She was sitting shotgun, eyes glued to the scenery. She had never been much for scenery but nearly a year confined to the belly of Cheyenne Mountain and alien planets had instilled a new respect in her for the beauty of her home planet.

"Well mostly." Jack conceded.

"Mostly?" Adam challenged.

Neither immortal had their own vehicle at the base so Jack was De Facto chauffeur his place could be a trick to find as well so it made more sense to car pool. Jack had his own reasons for wanting the immortals under his watch.

"Yeah mostly. Look, don't worry about it think of it as a short paid vacation."

"I don't get paid." Adam pointed out.

"Yeah we're working on that." Jack said changing lanes.

"Really?" Adam asked surprised. He didn't need money he had plenty. Still, it was a positive gesture. If they were willing to pay him then they were willing to have some kind of paper trail for him. Paper trails could be hard to hide or erase, which meant it was unlikely he would 'disappear' without a trace.

"So uh how exactly do you fish? Do you just dangle the line and wait?" Max asked. A city kid born and raised she had received lessons in hiding bodies and defending herself from an opponent wielding a Katana or similar weapons but not fishing.

"Yep, I don't have any fish in my pond." Jack said with a grin.

"Uh, sir?" Carter spoke up. Jack's face fell and he scowled for a moment.

"Well, I didn't used to. Long story." Jack said dismissively. Sam stifled a smile.

Adam arched an eyebrow at Max who merely shrugged and returned to sight seeing. She drifted into a light sleep, lulled by the voices of her friends and the low rumble of the engine and tires on the smooth paved road.

_She stood across from Adam a sword in her hand. It felt raw, alien and thick. Adam advanced slowly, stiff legged, like dog in a ring facing an enemy. She set her jaw and put her shoulders back. She narrowed her gaze and tried to focus on what she had been taught. Adam neatly disarmed her and left a deep gash on her forearm as a reminder. It burned and stung as it healed._

_She sighed and threw her sword to the ground. Adam rounded on her and savaged her with the flat of the blade. As he drew closer to her, faces inches apart he snarled at her for carelessness, drove home that to deny the sword was to deny survival. The anger in his eyes did not frighten her; it encouraged her she was emboldened by the concern behind it. She leaned forward and their lips touched._

_It was like white fire she kept her eyes open and watched the tremor of their contact ripple over his face and then he pulled her close and opened his eyes. She smiled into them and felt his arms go rigid he pushed her away. She frowned surprised and picked up her sword. She took up her stance and faced him. He stared at her with an unreadable expression for a few moments and then retrieved his own blade and charged._

Max sighed and smiled in her sleep.

"Good dreams." Carter said. Adam smiled slightly.

"Good, I don't think she has too many of those." He said softly watching Max's nearly childlike face, locked in healing sleep.

"Okay so what's up with you two?" Jack asked.

"Specifically?"

"How'd you . . . meet?" He settled on the wording after a moment.

"I took her in taught her about immortality gave her the basics." Adam said. Carter looked intrigued, in fact all the humans did. Adam laughed and explained further.

"Look I'm sure she's told you all of this before but we don't know we're immortal. Not until we die and wake up. Other immortals can usually tell if a mortal has the possibility of becoming immortal but not always. So Max died and woke up and survived for quite sometime before an immortal found her who didn't want to just kill her. Female immortals usually don't last long. They are rare most die at the hands of the first immortal they fall in love with or are simply dispatched by a stronger male opponent. The only other females I've known who live for a great deal of time have power. Political or emotional." He smiled then as though remembering a specific person.

"But mostly they have the option to call on champion male immortals in times of need. Max isn't like that, never has been. She wants to be able to take care of herself in every way. So she's deadly. I've never known such a young immortal with the skills and will to survive like she has. Its quite impressive actually."

"Are you a champion?" Carter asked.

"Me? No, I'm, well, I'm a nobody really. Just a grad student." He said with a laugh and a toothy grin. The mortals knew he was rather more than that but if he preferred to be a grad student than an apocalyptic figure head who were they to argue.

"Macleod is though. But they don't get along." Adam continued.

"Really? Odd." Jack muttered. Adam smiled and Carter gave Jack a look.

"I think you might like Macleod. He and Max ... well, they have a complicated relationship, not hostile really, just philosophically strained."

"I can imagine." Jack said.

"So, you met Max brought her in trained her, then what?" Carter prompted.

"Well, we became friends. She continued to learn from me and train with me, as well as Macleod, and Ri- well other friends of ours. She is a voracious learner. Anything she can use to defend herself she absorbs and gives her own interpretation."

"Yeah Teal'c mentioned something about that. I guess she took what he taught her and used it as part of some kind of dirty trick." Jack said with a chuckle. Adam nodded.

"Sounds like her." Adam agreed.

Max drifted toward consciousness when the jeep left the paved road for a bumpier dirt and gravel track but the murmur of friendly voices drifted her off again.

_She stood in Mac's loft staring out over Seacouver spread out below like a quilt. She wondered how she had come to be standing here and not in a shallow pauper's grave. Why her? Why give her immortality? Her life had been short and savaged and cold, was immortality a booby prize? A sort of reward for surviving that hell? No, Macleod had been a loved first born, a chief's son and heir to rank. Yet he was immortal and it was that immortality that drove his family away. _

_As she stood musing her friend/lover/savior/ arrived. He caressed her neck and stood behind her. She leaned against him and pulled one of his long arms close. She kissed the back of his wide hand and sighed._

"_Is it real?" She asked._

The jeep hit a rut and bounced violently.

"-real?" Jack was asking Adam. Max sat up blearily and stared around. They were deep into woodlands now. She straightened up and settled into her seat. Jack and Adam were talking about Adam's sword.

"Absolutely authentic."

"You're happy with the style?"

"Yes I've tried other blades including Mac's much beloved Katana, shortly before he knocked me on my bum but I do prefer my Ivanhoe."

Max felt weird, why would Adam volunteer information about his blade and technique?

"Hey." She said hoarsely.

"She awakes." Adam said loftily. She grinned at him.

"You're so cute when I wake up." She said confusingly and dug around in the rear of the Jeep for a cooler and something to drink to wash the weird sleeping-in-the-car taste out of her mouth. She found a bottle of water and sat down again.

"Should my ears be burning? Come on I know you guys picked Adam's brain while I was sleeping."

"Yep." Jack said and turned down a narrow tree choked drive.

"So?" Max prompted.

"Oh look we're here." Adam said. Max sighed and rolled her eyes. She hopped out with the others and followed Jack inside the cabin. He put a fishing pole in her right hand and a beer in her left. He saluted her and downed half his own beer, as Adam entered he was similarly outfitted and saluted with the second half of Jack's beer. Jack set his empty bottle on a small coffee table and picked up his own pole. He led the way out the back of the cabin and to a small jetty equipped with two lawn chairs. He set Max and Adam up and retrieved another couple of chairs from the cabin.

They hung out paddling in the water and drinking beers until the sun set while Jack prepared a meal for his subordinates. Carter retreated to the cabin early and assisted him. Daniel bagged it early as well driven in by the cold and early mosquitoes.

Max and Adam sat side by side watching their lines as nothing happened content in companionable silence.

"Why'd you come back? Really." Max asked.

"I didn't. I missed you Max but I knew you were pretty happy and relatively safe, from immortals at least. But I did not choose to come back, although now I am very happy I did."

"What do you mean?"

"One moment I was on my yacht, minding my business with a few margaritas, the next I was standing in General Hammonds office."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"Some technology." Max mused.

"Obviously, wish I'd known about it." He said ruefully. Max laughed.

"Like that would've kept you here." She pointed out. He grinned at her.

"Yeah well, no one likes to be made a fool." He confessed. She put a hand over his and smiled warmly at him.

With him and occasionally with Mac, her stone and iron exterior faded and warmed. Only with Adam had she allowed herself to truly be calm and open. He put his free hand over hers and squeezed her much smaller hand tightly. She sighed and leaned against his sturdy shoulder. She felt something new and strange in her gut. Contentment. She could sit there, knowing SG-1 was safe, Teal'c was going to be fine and Adam was whole and at her side, she could sit there knowing those things and nothing else, perfectly content until the stars burned out.

"You seem tired." Adam said finally breaking the silence.

"Yeah hard time sleeping lately, dreams."

"Let me know if they get too bad." He said gently.

"They have me seeing a shrink."

"Really?" Adam asked intrigued.

"Yup."

"Anger management?" He asked teasingly.

"No, Jack was angry that I didn't follow orders."

"But you got everyone home in one piece and no one captured?"

"Of course." She said and snuggled closer to him.

"That's my girl. So what's the shrink like?"

"He's okay. I think he's helping actually." Adam made no sign but he was glad Max had been forced into accepting counseling or therapy or whatever. She was damaged well before her immortality made her life even more complicated.

"Mmm, should we go in?" He asked.

"Do we have to?" She said with a tease in her voice. Adam groaned and laughed.

"Well if we don't you'll have to face all those questions in the morning." He pointed out. She laughed and stood. She stretched and offered a hand to the older immortal. He gripped it and stood. She grinned, wide and delighted to be with him, her teeth shone in the dying sunlight.

Something hit Adam's face, he blinked reflexively and looked around, the lake was empty and no one was nearby, he wiped at his face, and his hands came away smeared with blood. He looked to Max who had not moved. She made a half gasping noise of surprise and raised a hand from her chest. It was coated with thick blood. Her knees buckled and she dropped. Adam caught her and shouted at the house.

"We're under attack!" He nearly screamed and scooped Max into his arms, running in a crouch he raced to the house. Divots of dirt and rock shot up around him, the whine of a ricochet arced past his head. Someone out there was firing on him with a silenced weapon, whoever it was, was a bloody good shot. He ducked into the porch and crashed into the cabin.

He laid Max on the floor where she gasped and choked on her blood. He knelt over her checking her pulse and trying to see how bad the wound was. He tore her T-shirt away exposing her pale chest. She was astoundingly muscular but too thin. A projectile had entered her back and exited her chest leaving a man's fist sized hole in its wake. In spite of his age Adam felt sick staring at the quivering innards of his friend's chest.

Max gasped and gripped Adam's wrist she tugged him away from her and her eyes rolled toward the mortals gathered around.

"Pro. . . .prot . . save." She finally managed. Adam pulled off his own shirt exposing his pale skin and wadded it up. He pressed it to her wound and had Daniel apply pressure. He squeezed Max's hand and stood up.

"Orders?" He asked Jack.

"Where did the fire come from?" Jack asked quietly he hoped the enemy wasn' t close enough to overhear their conversation but there was no sense making it easy for them.

"The wood line to the west, silenced weapon, likely a high powered rifle, possibly a .308." Adam whispered. Jack did not bother to ask how Adam could be so precise with the caliber.

"Carter you take the front, Adam the rear I'm going to see if I can flush out our friends. Daniel, if Max heals you two follow me, if she doesn't stay here, they might just want _her_, dead or alive we need someone to guard her. If I can get these clowns to break cover I want you two to help me take 'em down otherwise stay here. Danny see if you can get the CB to work. It will take the locals a good hour to find this place but they can alert the Mountain." The other three nodded. As Jack glanced out the front window facing the Jeep Max gasped once more and fell silent, deadly silent. The four exchanged looks but remained silent. Adam's jaw flexed once.

Jack left silently and crept to the back of the house. Adam stood tensely peering out the window waiting for a patch of woodlands or shadow to move and take the colonel. Finally the colonel moved into the woods. Adam slipped out behind him and waited. The area was unnaturally quiet. The nocturnal creatures had sensed the human activity and been spooked silent or fled.

Adam shadowed Jack's path. While Jack had moved with the grace and silence of a black ops vet used to combat in truly alien terrain, Adam was five thousand years old and had spent a large portion of his life as a hunter, of man and beast. So he drifted along as silent as a mist, as natural as a falling leaf. He managed to catch up to Jack.

Jack was about five feet south of one gunman, to the colonel's right and forty yards further ahead was a second. Adam looped around to the rear of the second gunman. He hoped the Colonel would not mistake him for yet another gunman. He waited in silence as Jack made his move. the colonel deliberately broke a twig distracting the gun man closest to him. As Jack moved so did Adam. The two intruders spooked and fled presumably back toward their transportation which was apparently in the opposite direction away from the cabin.

Adam leaped bodily upon his target and brought the man to a crashing halt in the thick foliage his rifle went flying. The gunman scrambled for a weapon so Adam broke his forearm and choked him out. He disarmed the unconscious thug and tucked his weapons into his own waistband except the man's rifle that he slung over his shoulder. He grabbed the assailant by one ankle and dragged him carelessly through the brush making enough noise for an army. Up ahead Adam could just make out more sounds of struggle.

At the cabin the outside door burst open and slammed against the frame. Adam's head shot up and he listened intently it was a little too soon for Max to be up. He hoisted his prize up in a fireman's carry to move quieter and faster. He hustled toward the cabin and paused just out of sight. He laid his burden down and checked the man's pulse. Satisfied he would stay unconscious for awhile longer Adam approached the cabin and looked.

Carter was standing outside the cabin. A figure dressed in black held her with an elbow across her throat ready to choke her out. Her nose was bleeding and her face was badly bruised one eye was swelling shut. There was no other movement from the house. Adam's nostrils flared and he breathed deeply. He could smell no one else.

He picked up his gunman and threw him toward the cabin, clearing the foliage. The man landed with a bone jarring thud just within sight of the cabin. The figure holding Carter looked around intently. Adam slipped out and drifted closer to Carter. He watched as the Major's intelligent but fearful eyes slipped over him unseeing, satisfied that if Carter hadn't caught sight of him then neither had her attacker he moved closer.

"All right let her go! Who sent you? Maybourne? You all ready killed one of my team!" Jack snarled with real, heartfelt rage. It didn't matter that Max would get up in ten minutes pretty much as good as new, fact was they'd killed her.

Adam drifted even closer.

"O'Neill! Come out!" The muffled voice of a young man drifted from the figure. Adam clenched his fists. By his count he had maybe two minutes before Max woke up. If he timed it right he could hide the fact that she wasn't dead from the man or he could use her sudden awakening as a distraction to capture the man or at least free Carter.

He moved closer.

"You're doing it all wrong, you're supposed to tell me to come out first and _then_ you'll let Carter go!" Jack shouted from a slightly different position.

"We do not want to play your foolish games O'Neill!" The figure barked. Adam was almost close enough to move. There was no sound from the cabin. He hoped that Daniel was all right.

"I like my games! Now let Carter go!" Jack snapped. Using the distraction of Jack's arguing Adam darted forward and snatched the figure from behind. He broke the person's grip on Carter and hurled him away from the cabin, he snatched Carter by her collar and tugged her into the cabin slamming and locking the door behind them he pulled Carter to the right of the door and covered her head and shoulders. A spray of automatic fire chewed through the door. Shreds of door and mighty splinters rained down on them a few had enough force to penetrate clothing and flesh. Adam's face, forearm, and chest bled briefly from pinprick punctures and one large splinter protruded from his left shoulder, the portion of his bare chest closest to the door.

Adam took a split second to look around the cabin. Daniel was lying face down next to Max. He seemed okay, not bleeding or deathly pale but it was hard to tell at his distance. As the fire ceased Adam risked peering upward and out the window. Carter scooted away and checked on Daniel. Silence reigned over the woodlands for a few heartbeats.

"Open up and don't shoot me!" Jack shouted near the door. Adam got to his feet and slammed the door open. His face was grim. Together he and Jack dragged al three intruders into the cabin piled their weapons on the kitchen table and put Daniel on Jack's battered couch. Max remained cold and still. Adam frowned and knelt over her.

"Carter see if we have anything in the Jeep we can use to time them up." Jack half asked half ordered. Carter nodded, she left shooting worried glances at Daniel and Max. Finally as Carter returned Max gasped, sat up and choked, she coughed fiercely and hacked up a massive blood clot. It landed with a sickening plop on Jack's all ready ruined floor. She sat up gingerly with Adam's help.

"Ow." She said succinctly and took in her surroundings.

"Oh for fuck's sake, why do they always involve you guys? Who the hell are these assholes?" Max groaned massaging her chest. She stood shakily and checked on Daniel. He had a sizable goose egg on the hairline of his forehead just above the right eye but seemed okay otherwise. Jack handed Max a too large flannel shirt. she carefully slipped it on grateful it was button up. While she was healed enough to breath and have a pulse she still felt bruised and the new flesh filling in the gun shot wound was tender.

Max stared around noting Adam, Jack and Daniel.

"Carter?" She asked hoarsely. By way of answer the blond appeared carrying some climbing rope.

"Thank god for that." Max sighed and leaned back weakly. Adam got some apple juice from Jack's fridge and insisted Max drink a giant stein of it. As she sipped on it Adam slipped on a shirt borrowed from Jack and started a fire in Jack's fireplace to warm them all up. Max tugged a blanket out from under Daniel, that had been used to hide the ratty couch and tucked it tightly around Daniel.

While Adam and Max got domestic Carter and Jack carefully tied the intruders securely. They then searched their clothes and investigated their weapons and gear. Adam made hot tea.

Max finished her apple juice and tried to wave away the tea but Adam was insistent.

"I'm going to pee like a racehorse if you keep hydrating me." Max grumbled.

"Don't make me lecture you." Adam threatened. He was relieved the group had gotten off so lightly. One lightly dead immortal and one unconscious academic was a small cost. Adam guessed that the man who had shot Max had jumped the gun, somewhat literally.

While the team slurped hot tea Adam dug around and found a few cans of soup. Whatever Jack and Carter had been preparing had been knocked to the ground and trampled during the battle.

"Okay what is with all the liquid?" Max demanded.

"You shut yer yap, you need liquid you bled to death an hour ago. As for the heat it helps stave off shock, physical and otherwise. I'm sorry about the cabin colonel." Adam said handing out bowls. Jack nodded glumly. He had loved his cabin hideaway. Chalk another one up to the NID.

Daniel muttered and slowly came to. He yelped as he opened his eyes to the faces of his concerned friends.

"I got hit in the head again didn't I?" He asked glumly. They gave him tea and soup and Jack went with Adam to contact General Hammond via Jack's souped up CB.

"What happened Danny?" Max asked.

"You went down. Jack went out to flush them out, Adam followed him, one forced the door and stunned Carter I fired and missed and he hit me with something really heavy. I don't know after that." Daniel said ruefully.

"Story of my life Danny boy." Max said sympathetically and gave him a cold wet cloth to put on the goose egg, she handed him one of her personal pain tablets as well.

"Take half and see how you feel."

"What is it?"

"Nothing deadly just some oxy."

"Oxycontin? How did you get it?"

"Doc, Frasier. She can't stand to see me standing around refusing medical treatment but hurting while I heal. Soft heart that one."

"Oxy is pretty strong Max it's the poor man's heroin."

"Yep so take half only." She said and used her nail to score the tablet and an empty tea mug to tap it and break it along the score.

"Enjoy." She said and began clearing up the dishes. Carter was all ready doing dishes and heating water to scrub Jack's floor. The three attackers were still slumped and unconscious. Jack and Adam returned from the Jeep.

"The General has a team on the way. Medical and security for these guys."

"I'm fine." Max said sticking a hand in the air. Jack snorted at her.

"How 'bout you Danny?"

"Oh, I'm fine, just fine, dandy really hey Jack is that you?" Daniel asked blearily. Jack gave Max a dirty look.

"What? It was only half an Oxy. how was I supposed to know he's a lightweight?"

"Max its Daniel, pretty much a given he's a lightweight." Jack pointed out. Max looked sheepish.

Daniel went back to sleep while Jack stood guard outside, Adam stood watch over the prisoners, and the two women tried to clean up the gory mess. Max scrubbed at her blood on Jack's floor. It felt surreal.

"Are you okay?" Carter asked. Max stopped scrubbing and looked up at Carter.

"Yeah I guess, I just. This is getting old you know? Maybe I should leave the SGC."

"Nope, they'll still come after you and us likely. No you should stay." Carter said certainly.

Max gestured at the gore on the floor.

"Think it's worth it?"

"Totally." Carter said.

The SGC team arrived with three local squad cars as escorts. The still unconscious intruders were loaded up. Daniel and Carter were chucked into the ambulance. Jack and the two immortals were allowed to drive back in Jack's Jeep.

Max remained quiet she sat next to Jack. Adam sat in the middle of the back seat eyes intent on the road. No one spoke until they arrive at the SGC.

"So much for my first outing." Max muttered.

The three were sent for medical clearance. Max sat and picked at her teeth while Jack and Adam were examined. Jack was fine, Adam's core temperature, in spite of the tea and soup was lower than Frasier liked.

"Next time you're hunting masked men in the woods try to keep your shirt on." Frasier admonished. Adam grinned his boy grin and agreed.

Max was still dehydrated. Frasier insisted on giving her an I.V. as the fluid flowed into Max the last of her fading bruises vanished. Frasier checked her over and pronounced her borderline hypothermic just like Adam. Both immortals were sentenced to warm I.V. drips and hourly temp checks.

Carter and Daniel were all ready in the infirmary. Carter was released and prescribed light duty and pain meds for her bruised face and neck. Daniel was kept for observation. Frasier reamed Max for giving him Oxy. Max grinned.

"Hey Doc, what would you have given him?"

"Tylenol." Frasier snapped. She was seriously peeved at Max.

"You are so not fun."

"See if I prescribe you any painkillers next time you tangle with a Jaffa staff weapon." Frasier said with a scowl. Max shrugged and checked her I.V.

After an hour or so when Jack and Carter had left and Daniel was enveloped in pleasant narcotic dreams Adam and Max chatted.

"What's going on?" Adam asked quietly.

"I'm not sure." Max said and then filled in the details.

"Wow, who are the NID?"

"No idea."

"You haven't asked?" He asked not really surprised but obviously annoyed.

"Nope. I'll know when I need to." She said with a shrug.

"Trust much?" Adam demanded suddenly angry. She scowled at him resenting his tone.

"Never trust them Max." Adam hissed facing her she turned away from him.

"What was I supposed to do? You left me behind Adam." She said softly.

"I tried to take you with me Max, I couldn't, I barely made it out myself." Adam growled.

"I know that Adam, up here, in the same place I know I should obey orders, and stop picking fights with Mac! But here and here" – she gestured at her heart and gut –"I feel like you left me and I can't help but disobey orders that could get those mortals killed and pick on Mac 'cause he hates it. I can't help it Adam." She said coldly. Tears thickened her throat.

"Max I have never and will _never _choose to leave you behind. If I thought you were in danger for even a second I would have come for you." He said gruffly. He took her cold small hand in his.

"Would you? You didn't know anything about what was happening to me Adam. I was alone here, imprisoned, only let out to kill aliens. Yeah it was what I wanted but I needed you. I've always needed you." She said harshly trying to drive away her tears with anger.

"Max damnit what do you want?" Adam asked at a loss. He saw her as more than just a friend but was frightened at what going back to that point in their relationship could mean.

"I just want you here, near me, alive and well and close." She said her voice catching. Adam hopped onto her gurney and held her close to his chest, like a lover. She sighed and choked on her tears. She would not cry. She gripped him painfully tight until her roiling emotions crested and calmed.

He held her firmly. Their half hypothermic bodies fed on one another's heat. As Max relaxed into Adam's arms their quickenings sparked in the dim light of the quiet infirmary and raced across one another's skin. Max watched in mute wonder, it was beautiful. As she watched her quickening darted across Adam's face and sank into the flesh, his arteries and capillaries lit up with a soft gentle blue and then the light faded. She smiled up at him and he watched his own quickening a darker richer blue ripple over her features and embed itself into her flesh.

"What?" she asked. He shook his head.

"I have no idea." He whispered. She shivered and pulled away slightly. He smiled at her and let her have space.

Frasier arrived and turned a few more lights on. Daniel was fast asleep in the arms of Morpheus, a little more literally than normal. Frasier checked their temperatures and was still not happy. A thought occurred to her.

"Have either of you ever taken your temperature after . . . coming back?" Frasier found it hard to admit that Max and Adam actually died. Sam had been trying for weeks to convince Max to allow Sam to 'kill' her in a laboratory setting. Max had so far refused.

"No, I don't own a thermometer." Max said answering for both of them.

"It doesn't make sense anyway. Adam wasn't killed so his low temperature would not be caused by it. Still at least another hour of the heated I.V. and then you should be able to go." Frasier said marking their charts.

Silence descended as Frasier left. At the far end of the infirmary a tech sat doing paperwork and making occasional checks of other patients.

"What now?" Max asked finally.

"Nothing changes. I don't know what that was but I don't mind it, it doesn't seem to have hurt us. Look Max there's something between us that is more than just sex, or just friendship and its more than romance. We both know that, now our quickenings do to." He said simply.

"Okay." She said in his same tone. She leaned against him and dozed off.

This time there were no dreams.


	12. Bye Now

She woke alone. The infirmary was dimmed for sleeping hours and deserted. She knew there had to be a tech somewhere but whoever it was must be taking a break. She sat up and ignored her swimming head. She dressed in the spare clothes Carter had left for her and pulled her boots on. She didn't bother to tie the laces with the tongue flopping about she stood, up gripping the gurney tightly for a moment to steady herself as her head swam again.

Weird she normally didn't have so much trouble after being wounded. She chalked it up to adrenaline and blood loss and let go of the gurney. She straightened and stretched the dizziness did not return. She walked into the SGC and pondered going to her quarters. It was obviously late though and she enjoyed the solitude.

So she went for a walk. She wandered the corridors nodding and exchanging jibes with the few personnel still on duty. She felt relaxed and content, again. In spite of being attacked and killed her friend's lives being on the line she felt content. She frowned could it be because Adam was around? She trusted the older immortal with her life and sanity he had more than proved his ability in the past and again at the cabin was that why she felt this glow of well being?

She found her feet taking her to the gym. She allowed her feet to do as they wished and entered the gym. She did some light cardio followed by weights and a longer session of cardio tired now she left the gym and headed for her quarters.

Adam was waiting when she arrived.

"Hey where'd you go?" She asked surprised he hadn't been in the room when she woke.

"Frasier chased me out." He said apologetically.

"Mmm they assign you quarters?" She said stretching and turning on her shower. He smiled at her.

"No, not necessary."

"Meaning?" She asked archly.

"I'm not staying." He said softly.

"You just got here-" She started to protest.

"You can leave as well if you like." He said with a boy grin.

"What? How?"

"Jack and the good General have been fighting for us, seems you've done enough brave deeds to win over the public trust."

"Really?"

He shrugged. She grinned.

"Okay guess I'm do a vacation. Where to?"

"Yeah you, heh, can't come with me." He said sheepishly.

"Why not?" She demanded miffed at his apparent revocation of his earlier implied invitation.

"It's . . . complicated Max just look I love you okay? You're family so don't get your butt shot off and you're welcome." He said standing. She felt disappointed but knew in spite of her anger that she could not control Adam, couldn't cage him or bottle him or put a collar on him, he was a force of nature.

"Yeah. Okay but don't stay away so much okay?" She said trying very hard not to sound petulant.

They embraced and Adam kissed her cheek she released him and watched him head down the hall and toward the elevators.

So, she thought, alone again. The sense of contentment faded. Her familiar anger and blood lust surfaced again, slowly the blood lust faded into background noise leaving her anger at the forefront. She wrapped it close like an old friend and stepped into the shower.

She slept deeply and did not dream.

Come morning Teal'c was sprung from the infirmary. Max was busy working herself into a lather at the gym wailing on the punching bags and generally thrashing whatever came within range. A few of the braver special ops guys and bored marines would occasionally spar with her. Today they were all watching her no one had the balls to tangle with her. Max wasn't sure why she was so hostile whether it was because Adam had left again, because she had been gunned down like an animal or because she risked losing her friends every time they stepped through the gate whatever the cause her anger burned hot and bright.

She thumped the punching bag once more and the seams split pouring the heavy stuffing onto the floor. Max stepped back chest heaving as she caught her breath. She looked around her and noticed the gathered watchers. She wiped at the sweat on her forehead and thumped her fists together in annoyance. She stomped away from the ruined bag and pulled the tape off her fists. She tossed it on the gym floor and picked up her water, she took a long pull and left the gym.

The few personnel in the region of the gym scattered and avoided Max. One look at her face and the way she moved down the hall was more than enough warning. Her heavy steps and suicidal pace parted the waters with freakish speed. Behind her she left a wake of muttering and speculating personnel.

She stormed into her quarters and glared around. His scent lingered. The slight familiar scent of him, the odor of his cologne, fading and going stale she felt a tear trickle down her cheek and along her jaw. She hung her head and ground her teeth. Damn him riding in like some savior only to leave her again. She shook her head and straightened her back she took a deep calming breath and stepped into the bathroom.

She felt moderately better after a shower, Jack caught her on the way to the chow hall and let her know Teal'c was up and about she immediately sought him out.

Teal'c was in his quarters practicing Kel'No'Reem or at least it looked that way to Max. She paused in the doorway watching the big Jaffa with a smile. In his way Teal'c understood Max better than the rest of the team he also never criticized her. While Teal'c's ultimate goal was the defeat of the Goa'uld and the freedom of his people he never frowned on Max risking everything to bring the team back whole. He understood as a former first prime the importance of discipline and order but he never faulted her for disobeying orders and taking on risks that resulted in SG-1's continued safety and ability to inflict damage against the Goa'uld. So for that alone if not his own attributes and proven courage she loved him.

"Max Holloway enter." Teal'c said warmly . She smiled broadly at him and obeyed. She sat on his only chair and waited patiently for him.

"How are you?" She asked finally.

"I am well."

"Your symbiote?"

"It is healthy."

"Good I'm sorry Teal'c I should have gotten you guys out of there –"

"You did well Max. There were many and we were very few."

"I know Teal'c but . . . I shouldn't let things like that happen to the mortals around me." She said frustrated.

"Max Holloway you are not responsible for all the actions of those you are near. "

"Yeah well, it feels like I am." She said sourly and grinned at the Jaffa.

"Come on you must be starving." She said and held the door open. Teal'c followed obligingly he leaned heavily on crutches, his legs were hidden behind his pants, she found herself relieved that the damage was invisible to her. They ate in companionable silence. After their meal Jack found them and they played a game of basketball, Max was hilariously inadequate at it, even with Teal'c on crutches she couldn't out to him.

She was strong fast, graceful and deadly but hopeless on the court. Dripping sweat and laughing she conceded defeat. She woke the next day and was not angry. It had faded during the day, somehow. She lay still and tired. It was Saturday technically she didn't have any work to do. But the SGC didn't have a lot of regularity to its schedule.

So she was not surprised when her shower was interrupted by a phone call.

"Briefing in twenty minutes." Jack's voice growled.

"Okay." Max said and hung up. She dressed in her standard non-rank uniform and met the team with time to spare.

Their expressions were grim.

"Okay who's puppy got shot?" She asked taking a seat. The general had not arrived assuming he would be part of the briefing.

"Its the Ferals." Sam said almost apologetically.

"What? I'm not gonna break, out with it."

"Frasier finished some long term testing on the girl we tested." Sam continued and then looked uncomfortable.

"They're compatible with you and Adam." Daniel said finally.

"The Ferals are immortal?" Max asked stunned.


	13. Stowe it and Move it

"Oh for crying out loud you're almost more trouble than you're worth." Jack growled.

Max was sitting on a maintenance walkway overlooking her favorite gym. She was refusing to come down. Jack glared up at her in true irritation.

"Almost?" she asked sourly. Her legs were dangling off the edge of the walkway her arms folded on the lower of two handrails, she rested her chin on the back of her hands.

"That not dying thing is still pretty cool. Look Max we didn't know the Ferals were your… species." Jack said with a scowl.

"You suspected, you or the SGC."

"What are you twelve? Get your ass down here you baby." He snapped.

"Yeah maybe I am twelve Jack. I tell you lot I have trust issues, I sacrifice my life for you, for Christ's sake Jack I signed a contract and went to a shrink for you. This is what I get?"

"Yeah? You're so miserable? Leave!" He said his patience worn thin. It was at times like this that he longed for the days when his only worries were keeping the NID away from Teal'c and outwitting Apophis, ahh the simple days, before things like immortality …

"Jack I told you we don't know where we come from. You have parents, grandparents, siblings for all I know you even have kids and a damn wife. We don't get that. We can marry, we can love but we have no blood kin, none. I don't have anyone in this world with the same birth mark, or nose, no one on this rock has the 'family' hair, get me? I don't get to have a kid, if I marry anyone but an immortal I get to bury him in a fraction of my lifetime and he gets to watch me stay young and healthy while his body rots away. So you tell me that these… animals are like me? That my people, my friends somehow escaped this hellhole planet and found safety here as _infants _and I'm supposed to be like, sweet, let's have a reunion?"

"Max when you signed that contract you made a deal, chain of command, personal responsibility, leaving your painful personal shit behind, that's part of the job so pack it in and get your butt to the briefing room, you have ten minutes."

"After ten minutes?" She muttered, her lips pressed to her still folded hands.

"You do _not_ want to find out."

Jack stomped out leaving the doors swinging.

"And save the self pity for once!" he barked behind him.

Max sat for exactly seven and one half minutes. She stood stretched and leaped down from the maintenance walkway. Her right ankle cracked on landing, she grunted, stood, stretched and massaged the joint and then walked out on the freshly healed joint. Sometimes, a little adrenaline cleared the head.

She made it to the briefing room with ten seconds to spare.

"Cute." Jack said and sipped a mug of coffee morosely.

"As I was saying." Sam said and glanced at her commander and Max respectively. Max feigned disinterest and poured a mug of coffee. She swirled cream into it, more to watch the patterns it made than to soften the acid tang of the brew.

"There are several hundred similarities on a micro cellular level between the Ferals and the immortal samples. This alone is not enough to determine an undeniable relation."

"What do you need, birth certificates?" Max muttered under her breath. Jack kicked her hard in the calf. The muscle spasmed and Max winced and bit her lip.

"We can't establish a definitive relationship yet but with better samples we may be able to."

"Major may I ask a question?" Sam glanced at O'Neill. O'Neill sighed and waved an exasperated permissive hand.

"What kind of relationship are you looking at? I mean the difference between a human and a chimp? A Jaffa and a non-earth human, an earth human and a Jaffa?"

"Its hard to say, certainly more similarity than the two percent genetic differential between chimpanzees and Homo Sapiens but we cannot be definitive with our current information."

"So I'm not a monkey's uncle?"

"Uh, no Max." Sam said with a stilted smile.

"What we do know is that both immortal and Feral tissue samples show extremely limited regenerative capabilities outside of the body. Doctor Frasier hypothesizes that this is due to the lack of proximity between the sample and the natural electric field of the sampled individual. We believe that it is the distinctive E.M. field generated by the immortals, or the Quickening that is the driving factor behind their limited immortality."

"Wait, all this is possible just because I have a different natural E.M. field?"

"We don't know. Honestly there are so many variables that it is extremely difficult to pin down. Are you familiar with psychic research?"

"Uh, no nice segue though."

"Sorry, there's a term used by researchers of psychic phenomenon, it's shyness. Among traditional scientists and academia it is believed to be an excuse to avoid rigorous scientific scrutiny but I believe the concept may be valid here. Shyness occurs when the specific ability being tested somehow reacts to the test and ceases to function normally or at all."

"So my immortality doesn't like being looked at."

"It could be."

"Bottom line Major?" Jack asked redirecting the conversation.

"Sir we need to do more tests, a lot more and we need to examine the Ferals."

"Good luck with that Major." Max grumbled.

"Sir-"

"Major Carter I understand this is important to you but right now its too dangerous." Jack interrupted.

"Sir if we can discover why and how the Ferals and immortals can do the things they do –"

"I said I understand Major. Look if General Hammond is willing to approve the idea great but until then its up to the eggheads, we are a combat recon team clear?"

"Yes sir." Sam said professionally. The team filed out, Max deep in thought. Daniel and Teal'c were discussing some private project. Max suspected they were giving her deliberate space.

"Sir permission to see the General on this manner?" Sam asked stiffly.

"Granted Major, remember you understood when you accepted this position that you would not be a pure researcher, you're too good to be wasted in a lab."

"Understood sir, and thank you sir." Sam said coolly. Max hung out waiting for Jack.

"Self pitying huh?" She asked him.

"Yeah well y'know it gets old."


	14. Action

Max sat in her quarters staring at the colorless dark carpet

Max sat in her quarters staring at the colorless dark carpet. It was the thin cheap variety, complete with threads so tightly woven that it was more like tiling than anything resembling carpeting. She scuffed a bare foot over it and let out a soft emotionless sigh. She stood up and stretched, the soft pop and crackle of tendons and joints was audible.

"Ferals." She murmured and shook her head. Her hand drifted toward the receiver of her phone. She rested it there for a moment. Her face screwed up in thought. An expression of indecision drifted over her tense features.

Finally she pulled her hand away stood up and reached for the handle on the top drawer of her dresser. She pulled out under garments and began dressing. She stood in her skivvies and opened her closet. Hanging from the door was a sheath. It was designed to fasten over her shoulders like a backpack with a central fastener on her sternum. She slipped it on, settled it and secured the fastener. She slapped it experimentally and the straps of the sheath sprang loose. She readjusted and secured the sheath and then reached into the closet. She pulled out what looked like a stubby sword.

She stepped away from the closet still holding the weapon in her dominant right hand and flicked the weapon away from her. The stubby blade sprang forth with a soft snickt, a sword blade suddenly appeared. The demarcations of its segments were visible under the fluorescent lighting. The blade was ideal for self-defense in a pinch or assassination. Its one draw back was how delicate it was. The telescoping blade was simply incapable of withstanding much battering. It was great for a short period of time and had saved Max's life more than once but it was not a combat blade.

She pressed her thumb against the handle in an awkward gesture and put the point of the blade on her carpet she leaned on it lightly and the blade retracted, settling into place with a nearly inaudible click. She slipped it upward into the sheath, she would have to reach behind her, just above her belt to reach the handle, but it was a less awkward and exposing movement than reaching up and behind her back, exposing her right ribcage and the tender vulnerable arm pit area. She dressed carefully in her SGC standard uniform. Pausing to slip two throwing knives into each boot, a spring loaded forearm blade on her left fore arm, a clutch of two more throwing knives on her right wrist, and a longer stabbing blade on her right forearm, leaving her cuffs unfastened to allow easy access. She straightened from her arming and examined herself in the body length mirror attached to the closet door opposite the door normally holding her back sheath. She reached in and pulled a pair of boots out of the closet. They were standard issue steel toed boots. The extra couple pounds of steel could be tiring if the mission required a lot of hiking but the inflexible steel added enough weight and damage potential to an average kick that she felt it was justified. She smiled at her reflection and picked up a brush. She insured her still wet mane would dry and keep her vision clear.

She stepped into the hallway and walked along in a fog of deep thought. Eventually her feet led her to the main briefing room above the gate control room. She was the second to arrive. Daniel was sitting in the far corner from the door reading a file. She regarded the quiet man and smiled. In his own way Daniel was as indefatigable a force as Teal'c or any of the other members of SG-1. He had searched for Sha're and Skarra for literal years, even when hope had disappeared he kept looking. He even had the strength to forgive Teal'c for making the ultimate choice and destroying the Goa'uld who had taken Sha're along with the Abydonian woman to save Daniel. It was easy to underestimate Daniel but more than one system lord had made that error and paid with their slimy lives.

She sat across from Daniel and smiled, as he remained engrossed in his file. She contented herself with her own thoughts until the rest of the team arrived en masse. Jack led them in and took his own seat near the head of the table. Teal'c was with the team but more as moral support. The building that had fallen on him had not permanently crippled the big Jaffa but he had weeks of healing to do before he could be cleared for a mission. Still he sat near Jack and waited for the briefing to begin.

General Hammond arrived and began the briefing before the group could snap to attention.

"All right. You know what's at stake here and you know the plan. I want you to take care of this. Find out who or what is behind these kids and most importantly get your butts back here." Hammond growled gruffly and straightened. The team nodded as one and filed out to gear up.

Max took more firepower than normal although the majority was non-lethal. Knowing the Ferals were children, and suspecting they were related to immortals made her cautious, still she knew first hand just how casually brutal and savage they could be and did not want to be at their mercy ever again. She took a bandolier of flash bangs and slung it across her chest, half a doze gas grenades three to each side of her hip, a fully charged Zat gun in a thigh holster hanging from the outside of her right thigh, a backup on her left, her standard issue MP90 slung down her back safety on, a spare clip of rounds tucked into her Alice belt slung over her shoulders and finally her combat sword. It was a dull black long sword, expertly weighted and balanced, and razor sharp. She debated where to hang the sword and removed the backup Zat she tossed it onto the armory workbench and hung the blade from her left hip, attaching it just behind the row of gas grenades. She crouched and spun, stood up and jumped, satisfied the equipment was secure and relatively quiet she stood up and looked toward her team.

They were ready and waiting. She gave them a ferocious grin and followed them out. They were going to deliberately hunt for the Ferals. Once on the surface of a confirmed Feral planet they would plant beacons capable of sending out subspace pulses. The Tok'ra and the earth forces were geared up and ready to intercept those signals and trace the Ferals hopefully find out where they were from and who was responsible for them. The idea was to show up, plant a beacon and skedaddle. But Max knew that once the Ferals had their scent and moved in it would be difficult at best to extricate themselves, if the children got their hands on one of the team… well it didn't look good.

As the team entered the gate room Jack tossed something to Max, she caught it reflexively. It was a standard issue gas mask; modified with two lenses to allow for telescopic vision and proper aiming of a weapon, the alternate style featured a bubbled solid lens, while useful for peripheral vision and day-to-day work it made accurately firing a weapon an exercise in impossibility. She grinned and attached it to her Alice belt. Normally the mask would be inside a stiff pouch attached to her non-dominant hip and folded to allow for easy access and even easier donning. Jack, Sam, and Daniel's masks were positioned properly. Max knew that she would be laying cover fire during the initial deployment of gas grenades and would have to wait to don her mask so she opted –perhaps foolishly- to wear more weaponry and avoid the bulky pouch.

The iris spiraled away and the chevrons engaged. Max waited calmly through the now familiar routine. As the wormhole stabilized and the team formed up, she felt a jolt of adrenaline rocket through her and a desperate hungry grin twist her lips. Now she would face an enemy that had bested her twice, now she would have retribution, now she may get answers. She took a step forward and Jack put a hand on her arm.

"Relax Max, this is in and out, ideally we won't fire a shot." He said.

"When was the last time a mission was ideal for us Sir?" She asked. He released her arm and held his weapon ready. With a deep breath he led the way up the ramp into the wormhole.


	15. Return to the Scene

The first six planets were a complete waste of time. The locals were friendly and relatively peaceful and had no idea what the team was talking about when they tried to describe the Ferals. At the seventh planet Jack called a break at the base of the gate.

"Break time kids. Danny, Sam keep an eye out." Jack hunkered next to Max and thought for a few moments.

"We're wasting time Max."

"I know but I don't know how we can draw them out. Every time we've run across them we were on our way to a different planet."

"Right which is why we started out by trying those same address and then working our way out from those points."

"Right but its obviously not working."

"Yet sir." Max pointed out. They paused in thought.

"Sir I don't think we have any choice but to keep looking." Sam said. Jack sighed.

"All right up and at 'em lets see who's home." Jack grunted. The team fell in and started heading down the path.

The Stargate was located half a mile from thick woods. The path leading away from it was paved with irregular stones packed in with sand. Their boots cracked and scraped across the surface as they headed toward the woods. Max frowned and slowed her pace she made a conscious effort to soften her steps but their movements were still too loud, the area off the path was far too thickly wooded and crowded with low bushes to allow them to walk.

"Nice." Max growled and snapped the safety off on her rifle.

"Sam, EMF?" Daniel asked. The four pulled together and stood back to back with Sam in the center as she took readings.

"Nothing."

"Is that consistent with other missions?" Daniel asked. He and Jack exchanged looks. Max couldn't see the men but swallowed hard and readied herself, Sam shook her head in a negative and readied her own weapon.

"Sir?" Max asked.

"We don't know for sure." Max said after a moment.

"Doesn't matter. Carter, Daniel plant the probe or whatever it is, Max look alive, we're getting our asses out of here." Jack took up a prone stance facing the forest on one side; Max mimicked his pose taking the opposite side of the path. Sam and Daniel set about planting the probe. It took a few minutes to deploy. To insure it remained in place it was anchored with explosive bolts which shot downward insuring the probe's footing was secure. Once deployed it had to be brought online. The low thunk of the bolts settling caught Max off guard and startled her. She frowned and concentrated on the thick woods. A movement caught her eye she zeroed in on it and hoped to catch the movement again.

"Sooner the better" Max growled.

"We're done." Sam hissed. Max heard the soft scrape of Sam's weapon against her uniform as she moved to an offensive set up. Max nodded and stepped back from the road. She backed up and glanced at Jack. He gestured for Max to take point, the team fell into a loose diamond formation and started heading back toward the gate.

They had taken less than a dozen steps when the swarm hit.

No other word described the seething mass of children adequately. They were bedraggled, most naked some wearing skins or scraps of clothing none were pubescent, all were filthy, many had wounds and scars. The majority was in the age where sex was indeterminate. There had to be a hundred or more. They surrounded the team. Max snatched up two flash bangs shouted a warning while pulling the pins and hurled them down the path toward the gate. The explosives went off sending a wave of blinding audio and white light rippling through the crowd. The SG team had been trained to take the blast. They wasted no time racing for the gate. As they raced along Max took two grenades off her belt pulled the pins and chucked them behind them. They went off and gasps and choking cries filled the air. The gate was in sight not wanting to risk any damage to the team Max threw another two flash bangs, one to each side of the gate and turned to hit the address home.

Daniel was all ready there. The swarm of children was recovering. As the last chevron engaged Max fired into the air hoping the loud sounds would confuse the children. No such luck. The noise and smoke seemed to have enraged the children. Max glanced at Jack; Jack nodded and ordered Sam and Daniel through the gate. Daniel dove through with Sam on his heels Jack mounted the dais and shouted at Max. Max looked up and for a heartbeat she thought about staying, surrendering to the children and finding out what the hell was going on. But the moment passed. She pulled another pair of flash bangs – her last- and threw them into the front of the crowd. Their astonished and angry gasps as they went off Max charged through the gate with Jack at her side. As they hit the ramp they were screaming to hold the Iris.

"Its just the Ferals!" Max shouted.

Any ignorant child caught in the wormhole when the Iris was up would be killed. The Iris was designed to prevent matter from rematerializing in the SGC, since the wormhole was one way it was the equivalent of running into a semi truck on a sub atomic level. The Iris remained up until the wormhole collapsed on its own, then it slid into place.

Max caught her breath and looked over the team. She was pleased, they'd accomplished the mission with no casualties and minimal damage to the Ferals. Now it was up to the Tok'ra and other allies of Earth to find that planet.


	16. Dig Dug

It took three weeks before the signal was finally picked up by a deep space Tok'ra scout ship. The ship was too far out to be able to call in any additional ships to triangulate the signal so it was forced to simply trace it back to its source. It took another month and a half to do so.

"Why are the Tok'ra being so helpful?" Max asked Jack. They were relaxing in the briefing room having a thumb war while waiting for the rest of the team to show up.

"No doubt they have some ulterior higher than thou arrogant justification, but as long as they're being helpful lets not question it too much." Jack said and pinned Max's thumb.

She grunted and wriggled her thumb free. They continued battling for a moment.

"So the Tok'ra are Goa'uld that are _not_ evil? Right? How does that work?"

"Hmm well in Jacob's case it saved his life, he shares his body with Selmak and he gets to be cured of cancer."

"Still."

"Yeah I'm with you. No snake belongs in my head."

"But Selmak is such a nice snake." A voice interrupted them Jack looked up and grinned.

"Ah yeah, hi Max this is Jacob Carter." Jack said releasing Max's hand and standing. Max grinned at the new arrival and shot a glance at Jack.

"Carter?"

"Sam is my daughter."

"Oh, cool, well dang good for her, uh Hi I'm Max Holloway, promise I don't normally babble." She said and offered him her hand. He shook it and smiled at Max.

"I could have announced myself a little better."

"Well... yeah I suppose. So you're a Tok'ra now?"

"Yes, for several years."

"Herm, so how does it work? I mean does.. Selmak?" Jacob nodded.

"Does Selmak just give you a nudge and you let him er her? Take over?"

"Him, he just asks."

"Wow."

"Would you like to meet Selmak?"

"Uhm. Okay. I guess."

Jacob smiled and his eyes lit up, literally.

"Hello Miss Holloway. Word of your actions has reached us I am indeed honored to meet you."

"Whoah! Holy Shit!" Max cried and leapt backwards. In spite of her good intentions Selmak looked far too similar to Akna for Max's comfort, she reacted on instinct. Embarassed Max got herself under control.

"I am so sorry Selmak, that was rude I didn't mean to-"

"Word of your unfortunate experience with the woman called Akna has reached us as well. I apologize as well I did not mean to frighten you and should have realized my appearance would effect you."

"No way you're way nicer than her and I'm an idiot I know she was trying to look like a Goa'uld and you guys are physically similar, I really am sorry Selmak that wasn't fair."

Jack was smirking at the pair.

"Okay kids looks like the rest of the field trip is here." Jack said. Carter, Hammond, Jackson, Teal'c and a few more Tok'ra dressed in sand colored robes and tunics arrived. Selmak and Max exchanged nods and smiles and took their seats.

Max was far more shaken than she would ever admit. The flash of gold-yellow eyes and the growl of Selmak's voice had shaken her to her core. It was like standing in front of Akna again. She remained stiff and tense.

"We've found the planet but its going to be difficult to reach. The nearest gate is at least two solar systems away-"

"It doesn't have its own gate?" Carter asked confused, that was impossible. It had to have a gate for the team to use that was how they had reached it in the first place.

"It has a gate but we do not know the address. It seems it was once a gate from a mothership that was transplanted to the planet's surface." The annoyed Tok'ra continued. Carter nodded.

"We can give you the address but you will need your own transportation from that location."

"What about the Prometheus?" Jack asked the General.

"It won't be available for this op for quite some time. The shakedown is nearly complete but its too far out to call back and send to the target planet without taking months and the crew is overdue for a changeover."

"302s?" Jack asked.

"They might work but we would need another pilot."

"Can't Teal'c fly one?" Max asked.

"Well obviously Carter and O'Neill can fly the 302s, so either danny and I can ride with them and Teal'c cane take a third." She continued.

"General?" Jack asked.

"Clear him to fly it and I'll see what I can do Colonel."

"Wait, don't tell me you guys don't want him to fly it 'cause he's an alien? Dudes that's just wrong." Max growled.

"They are concerned Max Holloway because it is a very expensive machine." Teal'c grunted.

"Whatever." Max grumbled. The annoyed Tok'ra continued.

"The planet appears to be very similar to your Earth. the climate is more moderate. The settlements are devoid of adult humanoids. There are five that we located. The larges is in the center and the other four makeup an equidistant square with the large settlement at the center. There is no advanced technology. There are sown fields but it does not appear that any of the children work them. We made detailed scans and have brought you recordings of them."

"I don't mean to be rude but why are you doing this?" Jack asked finally. Jacob shot him an exasperated look.

"You asked for our help." The Tok'ra growled.

"Right, Analin right?" The Tok'ra nodded.

"Okay, Analin, we have a pretty good relationship but even we wouldn't go to all this trouble just 'cause." Jack pointed out.

"We too are curious about these ... 'immortals'. We would like to learn from them and help the children on the surface."

"You want immortal hosts." Max accused. Analin did not flinch or back down. He stared at her silently.

"Tell you what before you get your britches in a bunch why don't you see if its even possible?" Max growled. Adam who had remained silent during the thumb war debate and the following events put a hand on her arm in warning. She glanced at him and he shook his head minutely.

"Or not." She said and settled into her seat. Adam leaned close to her.

"Any Goa'uld whether Tok'ra or not will be killed attempting to possess us, our Quickening fries them."

"Oh." Max said.

"That is an excellent point." Selmak said. Max winced. No one wanted to let the Tok'ra know how old Adam was. The information the Tok'ra knew about the immortals was 'common' knowledge amongst the SGC and her allies but Adam's age was strictly need to know.

"I don't think that would be a good idea." Max objected.

"Why?" Selmak asked genuinely puzzled.

"Er, well ... Ask doc Frasier." She stalled.

"Hmm It's possible the unique immortal energy could damage a Tok'ra or simply make er 'bonding' impossible." She admitted. Selmak sat back frowing. Janet tossed Max a puzzled look, Max waved it away.

"I see, perhaps some simulations should be run, but the point remains we would like to help these people." Selmak continued returning the conversation to its main topic.

"How?" Daniel asked.

"What do you mean how?" Max asked surprised.

"How about water, education, clean clothes, fresh food, someone to teach them and care for them-"

"Right in order to do any of that we have to creat a truce. They don't seem to have any kind of system of government, and no real discernible leadership. What do you suggest we go in shooting?" Daniel asked.

"Er... huh." Max sighed.

"We don't have enough information. We should review the Tok'ra data and see what we can come up with." Carter said.

"How long will that take?" General Hammond asked.

"I'm not sure but give me a day and we should have something at least." Carter said.

"Very well. Colonel please see that Teal'c is cleared for the 302s, should have done it some time ago, Analin, Jacob please feel free to stay with us while Major Carter analyses the data, I'd like Dr. Jackson, Dr. Pierson and Max to stay behind please." The party broke up. Janet snagged Max and got her to explain why a bonding with a Tok'ra wouldn't work and then left as well.

"You three are the best bet we've got to figure out these Feral kids. I want you to hash out some kind of rules of engagement. I don't want to send my people into a situation where they have to kill children, I also don't want to have to leave them to their fates. See what you can come up with." As the General left the three sat for a moment and stared at one another.

"Huh, any ideas?" Max asked.

"Well obviously someone is tending the fields and taking care of the villages, maybe not very well or all of them, but that first village we ran into was fairly well kept." Daniel pointed out.

"That the one where a little girl stabbed you with a butcher knife?" Adam asked.

"Yeah so?"

"Very smooth." Adam laughed.

"All right Brainiac, feel free to chime in any time." Max snarled.

"There must be adults somewhere." He pointed out.

"Okay why aren't they taking care of the children?"

"Maybe they are?" Daniel said.

"Er, how? They're savages." Max pointed out.

"Well maybe that's why the adults aren't around. Maybe the kids are naturally aggressive like that. The girl you took with you was almost entering puberty. You said she was the calmest right?"

"Well, yeah."

"So maybe once they're out of infancy they're just naturally savage and are left alone until they're safe to be with the adults."

"Thats insane." Adam pointed out. He was trying to make Origami out of a file folder.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Okay assuming that's true where are the adults? The Tok'ra said they only found five settlements, the children were the only occupants in them."

"True but they didn't scan the whole planet, or the subsurface and Sam hasn't analyzed the data yet either."

Adam gave up on his swan and tossed the battered folder toward a tiny trash can.

"Okay, say you're right. The children get to be say a year or two old they get violent so they're left at the settlements. When they near puberty they start to calm and the adults come for them, right?" Adam asked. Daniel shrugged.

"How do the adults know to come? How do the youngest children survive amongst the group? What caused the violence in the first place?"

Max groaned.

"We need information. Why don't we go see how Sam's doing?"

"Its been half an hour Max I doubt she has anything." Daniel said.

"What else are we going to do?" She sighed.

* * *

Sam chased them out and ordered them to give her at least a couple hours. She had the science team make the data a top priority and let them loose. When the trio of troublemakers returned she had a preliminary report.

"We haven't found much but there is one interesting discovery. Underneath the main settlement there is a heavy concentration of iron and other metallic ores. Now it could be that these are natural deposits -"

"Or its a gian underground city where the adults live!" Max said excitedly.

"Or something along those lines. We're conducting further analysis but we still don't know why our gates jumped to this address or how, and we don't know for sure that there are any adults around."

"There has to be somewhere." Adam said.

"Okay look, you never saw any teenagers right? No young adults at all? Where are the kids coming from? Mushrooms? The stork?"

"What about us Adam?" Max challenged.

"We're sterile foundlings, where do we come from?" Adam frowned hard at her. Daniel and Sam blinked, they'd known Adam was sterile from tests run to save Max's life when the two first arrived at the SGC, but that the entire race was, well it was surprising. Max assumed from their reactions that Jack hadn't shared her little revelation from days before. Max coughed to break the silence.

"I don't know Max." Adam admitted.

"Maybe we come from here." She said. He scowled.

"The stargate was buried for thousands of years and no one has been bringing baby pre-immortals through it anyway, there's no way we could be-"

"We don't know that Adam, Sam said she doesn't know why that gate has been doing the things it has." Max argued excitedly.

"Max don't." Adam warned tiredly.

"Don't what? Have some kind of hope?"

"If you live long enough you try to find out where we come from Max its a given. The Game is a lie you know that, the War* proved that but the rest? The prize? I don't know anymore. They say I'm the oldest of us, if I try very very hard I can even remember bits of my first life but I don't know where we come from no one does we aren't meant to." he said gently.

"Fine but that doesn't mean this won't lead us to it."

"Sam what do you think?" Daniel asked.

"I don't know Daniel. This could be some kind of underground city or it could be a natural deposit of iron. We need to run more tests and we need more detailed scans."

"Could one of the 302s be outfitted with better scanning equipment? We could send someone out there to get our own data maybe focused on the main settlement."

"It would have to be converted to a single seat but it might be possible."

Sam's radio crackled on her shoulder.

"Major Carter to the gate room." Sergeant Walter Harriman's voice crackled.

"Acknowledged." Sam replied. The group tagged after her still arguing.

Analin and Jacob/Selmak were waiting at the base of the ramp for Sam.

"We have to go back honey, I'm sorry I wanted to spend some time with you. There's been some problems with one of our cells."

"I'm sorry to hear that Dad, has anyone been hurt?"

"Not yet which is why we need to hurry. I hope you can help those children." The two bid their farewells and the Tok'ra left.

"Hmm." Max said with a frown.

"What?" Daniel asked peeved.

"Convenient."

"Put the paranoia away Max." Adam said and nodded toward the personnel entrance. Jack and Teal'c had arrived.

"The big guy is all good to go, as if he wouldn't be." Jack snorted.

"Good we kinda have a plan sir but its going to take a little time to get it ready."

"No rush we have all the time in the world." Jack said.

* * *

Two weeks later a 302 had been outfitted with advanced scanning technology and dispatched to the nearest gate. The pilot was under orders to gather as much data about the main settlement as possible and if possible the address for the local gate. The wormhole from the SGC to the first Gate would be maintained to facilitate communications.

"Approaching the planet now control." The pilot said over his comm. The pilot was Major Jake Wesleyan. Top of his class and go getter.

"Understood, we need you to get as close to the settlement from orbit as you can, don't enter atmosphere though you may not have enough fuel to break out again." Carter warned from the SGC control room.

"Copy that control." There was a pause as he maneuvered closer.

"Establishing geosynchronous orbit over the center of the settlement control."

"Copy."

"Initiating scanning protocol Alpha with immediate storage and transfer to the SGC." There was a soft electronic whine and a click.

"Looks like there's definitely something underneath that town control. Big and it goes at least a mile under the crust."

"Sweeeeet." Max growled. Adam elbowed her in the ribs. A digital representation of the planet and pilot were being displayed on the monitors around them. The image was being updated by the continuous data feed from the 302 to the SGC database.

"Control I'm getting some kind of EMF readings... Oh shit control some kind of weapon has been launched from the surface of the planet!"

"GET OUT OF THERE WESLEYAN!" Jack snarled over the comm.

"Taking evasive action!" Wesleyan snapped. The image on the screen showed a blob tracing the little image of the ship, the blob looked huge.

Wesleyan carefully did not look out his view screen at the approaching projectile, he concentrated on dodging it and continuing the scan. His HUD beeped and flashed indicating the scanning was complete. Wesleyan decided to abort the other scanning presets and head for the SGC, after losing his pursuer.

He throttled the 302 to max and darted toward the still open gate from the SGC. He dodged around planetlets, and a thin asteroid belt, skimmed moons and still the projectile followed, finally Wesleyan veered as close to the local star as he dared, the gamble worked. The greater mass of the projectile dragged it into the sun. Sighing in relief he wiped the sweat from his face.

"Bogie is down Control, heading home." Wesleyan reported. The control room erupted in cheers.

"That guy can totally fly." Max said in awe.

The wormhole to the Feral's was closed and Wesleyan dialed the address for his poit of departure a space gate near Sol. Once on the other side he entered the coordinates for the SGC and headed home.

"I hope that was worth it." Adam said.

"Absolutely." Carter said excitedly. As soon as it was clear Wesleyan would be safe she had begun to pore over the data.

"There's a city under that settlement all right, and according to the scans its more than six times the size of the settlement."

"Big." Jack said mildly.

"So, what the adults are subterranean?"

"Maybe. It makes a kind of weird sense. A lot of earth species are basically subterranean as infants and then become surface dwellers in maturity."

"Only because they're vulnerable as infants and living in dens underground is safer."

"Maybe that's why the adults live underground." Max said.

"Okay well what about the fields? Those things were perfect, like agribusiness perfect."

"Well at the epicenter of the biggest fields, there's a cleared spot, I would guess that the underground group comes up during the night and tends the fields from there, possibly with heavy equipment." Carter hazarded.

"So we should aim for a night operation and try to land near those empty spots." Jack said.

"Yes sir, I think so I mean we still have a lot of work to do on this data but yeah I think that's our best bet."

"Okay. General?" Jack asked.

"How much time do you need Major?"

"Two days at least."

"You have a go in 48 hours Colonel."

"Thank you sir." Jack said.

* * *

*See Shattered/Shattered 2:Genocide Avenged


End file.
